A Year In The Life
by Netsrik1
Summary: A year in the life of Castle and Beckett, told through the major (and a few minor) US holidays. Mostly fluff, probably some drama. My contribution to the 2015 Castle Ficathon
1. Chapter 1 - New Year's Day

_A/N: My first #Castleficathon! Well, mini, the 30,000 words is a little daunting. :)_ _The story is what the title says it is, a year in the life of Rick and Kate as told through the major (and a few minor) US holidays. I've never seen a story like this one and I thought it would be fun to write. There will be 14 chapters in all. I hope you enjoy!_

 **XXXXXX**

It was New Year's Eve. Castle peeked into the bedroom where Kate was sleeping. The flu had been making the rounds at the precinct and Kate had been hammered with it, so no party tonight. Martha and Alexis had gone out, for which Rick was grateful. He wanted it quiet. Kate needed to rest.

He went into his office, intending to write. He didn't feel like celebrating without Kate, but it did feel odd to not be out and about. Moving over to the window for a moment, he could see revelers walking and the faint sounds of horns honking, getting ready to ring in the new year.

He noticed the clock showed 11:00 pm, so he set the alarm on his watch for an hour. He'd wake Kate up at midnight to give her a kiss and then let her go back to sleep. But just as he switched on the computer, Kate came out of the bedroom.

"Rick?" she mumbled.

Castle looked up in surprise. She had just been sound asleep.

"Kate, what are you doing up?" he asked. "Come on, let's get you back to bed."

"No, Rick. I'm sorry," she whimpered, "I had to get up to…you know."

"Oh, Kate, don't be sorry for that," he objected softly.

"No, I'm sorry that you're here. You should go out, have fun. I'll be okay."

Castle sat up straighter and pulled Kate onto his lap.

"You want me to go out and have fun?" Even Kate, sick as she was, could hear his incredulous tone of voice.

"You think I could have fun," he went on, "while my wife is home sick in bed?"

"It's New Year's Eve," she frowned. "You shouldn't be stuck here with me."

"See this is how I know you're really not feeling well." He pushed her gently off his lap and stood.

" _My_ badass detective," he continued with a smile, which she returned shakily, "might be okay with staying in, having our own private party. But…"

Kate winced, thinking of something, but Rick didn't notice. He began leading her back to the bedroom.

" _My_ badass detective, would handcuff me to the bed if I even thought of going out and having fun without her. So, Captain, my Captain," he grinned as she rolled her eyes. "What do you think about that?"

He pushed her carefully, trying to get her to lie down, but she resisted.

"Come on, Kate," he pleaded. "You need to rest."

"It's almost midnight, Castle. Dance with me?"

She had such a forlorn expression on her face that he relented.

"All right. But if you have to make a run for it, it's back to bed. Deal?"

Kate chuckled.

"Way to kill the romance, Castle," she giggled.

"Hey, if that happens, I'd say the prime suspect would be you."

She smacked him lightly on the chest, then took his hand and pulled him back toward the living room.

They parted for a moment – she to the stereo, he to the kitchen.

"Ginger ale in lieu of champagne?" he called, making her stop and think again.

Misunderstanding her hesitation, he went on. "Might help settle your stomach."

"Yeah, thanks Babe, that would be great," she told him, still thinking while she brought up the playlist of slow songs they liked to dance to. She wasn't up for anything wild. Even the thought of a fast waltz made her queasy.

She also thought that perhaps she might be drinking ginger ale for a lot longer than tonight. No one else in the precinct had been hit as hard with this flu as she had. Maybe there was something else going on.

She didn't want to say anything just yet, though. No need to completely freak him out and possibly spend the first day of the year in the ER. She could hear him now.

 _'_ _She has the flu, and a low grade fever, but it's still a fever, is she going to be okay? Are they both going to be okay?'_

No. She'd wait until she felt better before telling him her suspicion. Ugh. If she ever felt better. Right now she'd be happy if she could keep one meal down.

 _'_ _Ooh. Don't think of food, Kate,'_ she thought as Castle made his way over with two champagne flutes filled with the soda.

Handing her a glass, he made a toast.

"To us in the new year. May it be full of surprises and joy."

Kate smiled and added her own.

"And to quote this author I kind of like," she pushed the button on the stereo, music filling the air, "'May the dance never end and the music never stop.'"

They each took a sip, then Castle took the glasses and placed them on the coffee table.

"Did it help a little?" he asked.

"A little," she replied, smiling at him. He was too good to her.

They continued to dance slowly during the final half hour of the year. Hearing the cacophony of partiers outside the window, Rick and Kate were content to simply sway to the music. Not talking, they breathed each other's air; safe in the bubble of their arms.

Rick kept the swaying slow, so as not to upset Kate's sensitive stomach, but he thought he might have kept it slow even if Kate had been well. He liked this New Year's 'party' with just the two of them. He loved to just _be_ with her.

Kate for her part was nearly overwhelmed with Castle's quiet care. She knew she only felt this way because she wasn't feeling well – or possibly hormones – but she could stay here forever, just basking in him.

The noise outside began ramping up. Horns honking, people yelling, firecrackers being shot off.

"It's almost time," observed Castle. "You want to turn the TV on?"

"No, let's not," Kate replied. "The people outside will announce it. That's all I want of the outside world coming in tonight.

He smiled down at her with so much love in his eyes that tears formed in hers. He noticed and frowned.

"What's wrong, Kate?"

She shook her head, annoyed with herself.

"It's just this flu." ' _Or maybe more,'_ she thought. "It's making me all sappy."

He chuckled.

"Don't laugh at me," she grumbled, albeit with a smile.

"I'm not," he protested lightly. "I just like this sappy you. It's so unlike you, Beckett."

"Yeah, well let me shake this off and I'll show you how unlike me this really is."

This time he laughed aloud.

"I'm looking forward to it, Kate." He ran his hand through her hair. "I just want you to get well."

She wrapped her arms around his waist and burrowed her face into his chest.

"Me too."

Castle's watch chimed, surprising them both.

"Happy New Year, Kate," he whispered, kissing her softly as the party outside continued to crescendo.

"Happy New Year, Rick," she whispered back.

"Party's over, let's go to bed. We can sleep all day."

Leaning into him Kate smiled.

"That usually means something different than actually sleep," she teased.

He waggled his eyebrows.

"But not this time," she croaked. She could barely keep her eyes open.

"Come on," Castle started pulling her toward the bedroom.

He tucked her in and then returned to the living room to grab the ginger ale, just in case.

She was sound asleep when he got back to the bedroom, her arms wrapped around her waist almost protectively. It made him want something he wasn't sure he was supposed to be wanting yet.

But it was New Year's Day – barely. A day to discuss new things. A day to decide if it was time to start wanting certain things.

He looked down at Kate's flushed face again.

Maybe he wouldn't bring it up today. They could start talking about wanting things next week.

He climbed into bed, wrapping his arm around her, tangling his fingers with hers over her belly.

Kate dreamed of a blue eyed boy.

Rick dreamed of a dark haired girl.

And the party continued out on the streets of New York.

 **XXXXXX**

 _A/N: I know this is mostly New Year's Eve, but there's a little bit after midnight in there, so I say it counts. :)_ _I'm hoping to be able to post twice a week, if RL doesn't get in the way. Next up, Valentine's Day._

 _I'd love to hear what you think!_

 _K_


	2. Chapter 2 - Valentine's Day

_A/N: Welcome to chapter 2 of my ficathon story! This one has a little more drama and is a bit longer. I hope you like it!_

She was trying to be sneaky. Not an easy thing to do considering she was married to the king of sneaky. Her only saving grace was that he had been out of town on a European tour for _Driving Heat._

Neither she nor Rick were particularly happy with Gina and Paula for this tour. Rick was also not happy with his lawyers about it. Gina had sneaked this in the fine print on his latest book contract and no one had caught it until it was too late.

He was gone most of January and now here it was Valentine's Day and _finally_ he was coming home.

Kate slowly opened the door to the loft, her eyes closed. She didn't want to possibly ruin any surprise that Castle might have for her. Like him coming home early, as he had been known to do on occasion. She called out.

"Is anybody home?"

Silence.

She opened her eyes to see the loft as it always had been.

Kate was alone. Just like she wanted to be. She wanted to set up her surprise before he got here, so where did this rush of disappointment come from?

Stupid question, of course.

She rubbed her belly. She was already in love with this little kidney bean, but she could do without the hormones.

She thought back to her first doctor appointment last month.

 _"_ _You're definitely pregnant, Mrs. Castle," the OB/GYN announced, looking at a chart. "You also say you've had the flu?"_

 _"_ _Yes, it wasn't a high fever, but it's been going around work so I assumed that's what it was. I was coughing, sneezing, the whole bit."_

 _The doctor looked thoughtful._

 _"_ _Hmmm. The fever is a concern, but since you say it was low grade, I'm wondering if you had just caught a cold and the morning sickness began at the same time. How long did the fever last?"_

 _Kate thought about it for a moment._

 _"_ _No longer than a couple of days. I remember being a little surprised it didn't last that long with all the throwing up I was doing."_

 _She grimaced._

 _"_ _Still am doing."_

 _The doctor nodded._

 _"_ _Fever can hamper development of the embryo at this point and can cause certain birth defects. What medication did you take?"_

 _"_ _By the time I was able to keep anything down the fever was gone."_

 _"_ _Well, I'd say everything is most likely fine. We'll keep a close eye on everything, though. We'll do an ultrasound next month."_

Kate jerked out of her reverie. Was she wrong to have not told him yet? Probably. But the 5 or 6 hour time difference took its toll, especially with the pregnancy. Kate, while now able to keep food down in the mornings, was sick in the afternoons – which the doctor said was perfectly normal. That, combined with how tired she was all the time, really curtailed her conversations with her husband.

And she wanted to tell him in person. When she'd made the appointment last month she'd come home all excited to tell him her suspicion, only to find Rick on the phone ranting to Gina about the contract. If she told him then, she reasoned, Rick would have refused to go, which could have very well led to a breach of contract lawsuit. And she did not want that hanging over their heads with the baby coming. They might have had a good case, as buried as this clause was, but she didn't want to risk it.

She hoped telling him as a Valentine's Day present would soothe feelings hurt by waiting so long to say something.

Kate began setting up. She started with a balloon bouquet that was mostly Valentine's appropriate, with a big heart balloon and red and white for the rest, with one exception. A light blue balloon with the word 'baby' in pink. She carefully placed that balloon in the middle of the others in the hopes he wouldn't see it right away. Then, a writer appropriate gift. A sturdy notebook and fountain pen. She'd written tomorrow's ultrasound appointment on the first page, without saying exactly what the time was for. She didn't mind his seeing it, but she wanted to see if he could figure things out from her other gifts.

Her next gift was a box of dark chocolates – since, as Castle said, women aren't the only ones who like candy on Valentine's Day. Not baby related, but why not anyway?

Next up were two wrapped boxes. Inside each box was a newborn onesie. A blue one with NYPD written on it, (amazing what one can find online these days) and a red one with The Flash's lightning bolt emblazoned on the chest.

And last, a pregnancy test. Kate had already been to the doctor before she bought it, but she wanted Castle to see the plus sign. Sappy? Maybe…definitely, but whatever. Just knowing she was pregnant with his child made her sappy. Nothing to do with the hormones at all…riiiiight.

Looking around the room at her setup, she smiled. She was nervous but excited to see his reaction to her news. Would he be angry she hadn't said anything? Would he understand why she waited?

Her phone chimed.

Glancing at it she saw the notification that Castle's plane was landing in an hour.

She grabbed her purse and headed out to the airport,

 **XXXXXX**

Castle, for his part, _had_ actually come back to the city early. Only by about three hours, but he wanted to come home, dammit. If he didn't normally have such a good working relationship with Gina and Black Pawn, he'd seriously consider looking into changing publishers. Gina knew he would never agree to a month long book tour unless Kate could go with him, and he knew that was why she buried it so deep in the contract. He'd had his lawyers going over it with a fine tooth comb to see if there were any more surprises they'd missed before.

But that wasn't why he'd caught an earlier flight.

He wanted to find the ultimate Valentine's gift. But what was it? It's not a 'what do you buy the woman who has everything' thing, but it's still frustrating to think about.

For all her love of leather jackets and stiletto heels, Kate Beckett had very down to earth taste. As much as she loved dressing up and heading out for a night on the town with him, she loved sitting on the couch with him watching a movie or reading a book in her bicycle pajamas and a pair of fuzzy socks even more.

Rick loved that about her. Loved that Kate was so comfortable with him and in the loft. She could have asked him to move – to find a new home that was theirs alone – or at least sell the house in the Hamptons so she wouldn't have to think about 'all the other women' he'd brought up there – and he would have, if it would have made her happy, but she didn't ask.

She was mostly over her insecurity in being with him. He was still incredulous when he thought back to the Mickey Dolan case. _'You're like this world famous, bestselling author and I'm just this cop…'_

Just this cop.

Hardly. Still after all this time, she's extraordinary.

There was his idea.

Ducking into a coffee shop to get out of the way, he ordered a quick cup then pulled his notebook from his jacket pocket. Turning to a blank page – ' _hmm,'_ he thought. _'Nearly full. Need to get a new one.'_ He began writing every synonym for the word 'extraordinary' he could think of. He'd pull up the online thesaurus, but he didn't have time.

Paying for the coffee, he ran out of the shop, scrolling his phone list for a specific number.

Fabrice Hawk was a graphic artist and one of Castle's 'guys'. He was always happy to brainstorm with Rick on the Nikki Heat and Derrick Storm novels, though Gina insisted on the final artwork being done 'in house'.

"Fabrice!" Castle exclaimed into the phone while hailing a cab. "I was wondering if I could come see you and commission a poster for tonight. I know it's short notice." He listened as Fabrice answered.

"Right," Rick replied. "It's something easy I think you could do in your sleep. But if you're too busy…"

A cab stopped and he climbed in.

"Great. I'm on my way to you right now." He gave the cabbie the address and spoke into the phone again. "It's a simple poster with just words on it…yes, I have a list…Synonyms of the word 'extraordinary'…A different font for each word."

He smiled as he said the word 'font', thinking of his and Kate's _other_ definition of the word.

"Yes, it's for Kate. It's Valentine's Day…No, I didn't forget, I've been out of town on tour…Thanks, Fabrice, I owe you big time."

Half an hour later Rick had explained his idea to Fabrice.

"So, Rick, does your beautiful wife know you've come home early?" inquired Fabrice.

Castle eyed his watch.

"No, and she's probably getting ready to pick me up at the airport. I should probably…"

"Go." Fabrice waved him away. "Head back to the airport so she can get you. I'll have a basic template for what you want when you bring her here to show her your 'late' Valentine's Day gift." He grinned. "You may want to have a couple of dozen roses at the ready."

That made Rick laugh.

"Not a bad idea, Fabrice." He clapped the artist on the back. "Can you give me a timeline for this?"

"Well, as you say, it's a simple design. I'll have the completed poster by tomorrow evening, if that works?"

"Fabrice, you are a master."

"Go! Go! Go so I can get to work!"

Castle ran out to catch another cab back to the airport.

 **XXXXXX**

Castle had been back in the airport for all of five minutes when he saw Kate striding through the automatic door. His breath caught as it always did when he hadn't seen her for a couple of days. Wow. How he had managed to snag this woman he didn't think he'd ever understand, but boy he would take her.

The moment she saw him her face lit up, bright as the noonday sun, and he was staggered all over again. Not usually so demonstrative in public, she threw her arms around him and kissed him hard.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Rick. Welcome home."

"Wo – w – wow," he stammered. "If that's the kind of welcome I get, I'll go away more often."

"Don't you dare!"

They hugged for a few minutes more, until they both heard the grumbles of other passengers.

"Get a room!" and "Could you at least get out of the middle of the walkway?"

"You seem to be feeling better."

She smiled wanly. "It comes and goes," she explained. "Things are looking up, though. Luggage?"

"I've arranged to have it sent home," he replied. "I want to take you someplace before we go."

He thought he saw a tinge of disappointment in her eyes, but it was gone before he could look closer.

Dismissing the feeling, he took her hand and they walked out to her car parked in a police only slot.

"Abusing resources Captain?" he smirked.

Kate blushed.

"I couldn't wait."

After leaving the airport, Rick directed Kate to Fabrice Hawk's studio.

"It won't be finished until tomorrow, so I hope you don't mind a late Valentine's gift, but I want to show you what Fabrice and I came up with for you."

She smiled. She wouldn't have been angry if his gift was a week late or even if he'd completely forgotten. He'd been gone so long that his mere presence was gift enough.

"Rick!" Fabrice called out as they walked into the studio. "And Kate! It's so nice to see you both again!" He winked at Castle. Come, see what I have for you so far."

They moved over to Fabrice's computer.

"I have the basic layout done. The finished product will by 24x40, the size of an average movie poster."

Kate gasped and tears filled her eyes as Fabrice pulled up the graphic.

The design was simple. Words written in pink on a black background.

A column of twelve words in different fonts, each a word that Rick had used to describe her.

Amazing. Exceptional. Fantastic. Incredible. Phenomenal. Remarkable. Surprising. Unforgettable. Incomparable. Inspiring. Magical. Extraordinary.

Words she didn't always feel she deserved, but every time he said them, she felt cherished.

"I know where I'm going to hang this," she whispered.

"Where?" asked Rick.

She beamed.

"I'll tell you when we get home."

 **XXXXXX**

Another 20 minute drive and they were walking into the loft. The first thing Rick noticed after opening the door were the balloons. His eyes twinkled as he looked from them to her.

Striding over to the coffee table where she had placed her gifts, he was surprised to see her nervously biting her lip. He gave her a wide smile when he noticed the heart shaped candy box, and the notebook and pen lying next to it.

"I was just thinking earlier that I needed a new notebook," he grinned at her, and she smiled shakily back.

He was confused by that, but didn't let on. She obviously wanted him to continue with the gifts.

He picked up the notebook and fanned through it. He saw the time listed on the first page and asked, "We have someplace to be tomorrow morning?"

Kate simply nodded.

"Keep going," she ordered with a smile.

"So bossy."

He turned back to the gifts and picked up the box with the Flash onesie in it.

"Is this you calling me a kid? Because you do that pretty much every day."

That made her laugh out loud, but she didn't reply.

"Or is it your way of telling me to slow down?" he asked as he picked up the other box. "By the way, you haven't told me where you're going to hang your poster. We're home now." He regards her intently as she does the same.

"Not until you've opened everything, Babe," was the only answer he got.

He opened the NYPD onesie and gazed at her shrewdly. Maybe she was ready to really discuss kids now. They never did talk about it last month; not with her sleeping most of New Year's Day and then he was gone. But maybe now…

He shook his head and reached for a small elongated box.

Kate moved forward and began fiddling with the balloons, moving the red and white and pulling out one that was light blue.

He opened the box and looked down at the stick with a pink plus sign. His head shot up and he gaped at her holding the balloon with the word 'baby' printed on it.

She nodded at him tentatively.

"Really?"

"Yes, really," she played with her hair, a nervous habit Rick hadn't seen in awhile.

"I wanted to tell you earlier, but you were so angry about the tour, and then you were gone before I went to the doctor and I wanted to tell you in person and…"

He cut her off.

"B – Best Valentine's Day gift ever," he stammered, tears filling his eyes.

Kate's eyes overflowed as well.

"You're not angry I didn't tell you earlier? Over the phone, or..."

"Kate," he broke in, "This is perfect. I know it's not a competition, but you beat my gift by a mile. This is the drawer all over again."

She blushed.

"Don't you dare knock my poster, Castle," she retorted lovingly. I want to put that in whichever room becomes the nursery. I know our baby will be all those things, and I want him to see those words and remember them."

"Him?"

She smiled.

"Or her. I don't care. I do want to find out eventually though."

Castle nodded.

"The date in the notebook?"

"Our first ultrasound. It'll be too soon to find out the sex of the baby, but I still want you there with me."

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be. I meant it, Kate."

She squinted at him quizzically.

"Meant what, Rick?"

"Best Valentine's Day gift ever."

 _A/N: I'd love to hear what you think about this one! I'll be posting a picture of the poster on my tumblr page, grabnetsrik1 dot tumblr dot com._


	3. Chapter 3 - Saint Patrick's Day

_A/N: This one got away from me and ended up being longer and a little sappier than I intended. But I'm a big believer in going with what comes so here it is. Thanks to Missy520 on Twitter for giving me the idea to have Alexis living with Martha. I only touched on it here, but I may revisit in future chapters. This story is set in an indeterminate future, but since I'm using dates for next year, and with where I've put Alexis, I guess you could call this a Season 8 AU. I hope you enjoy it!_

 **XXXXXX**

"Your mom is bringing green beer?" Kate looked up at her husband who was bouncing on his toes.

"Your mom. Martha Rodgers. Lover of fine wine, fine cuisine –"

"Even though cooking said cuisine is not exactly her forte," Rick cut in.

"Hush, Castle," she rolled her eyes. "The point being your mother loves the finer things. And she's bringing green beer?"

"That's what she said," Rick shrugged.

"And you're sure you were talking to _your_ mother?"

"I'll admit it was a bit of a pod person moment."

Kate's eyebrows quirked.

"Well I can agree that _Invasion of the Bodysnatchers_ might just be the most reasonable explanation for something like that."

Castle eyed her warily.

"It seems I'm witnessing another pod person moment here. This doesn't qualify as an 'out there theory'?"

Kate laughed.

"Well I _have_ been taken over by an alien being, so to speak," she teased.

She watched as Rick lit up. Eyes wide and a ten thousand watt smile taking over his face. Every time she mentioned being pregnant, or said the word 'baby', he got this look. So happy. So excited.

She knew she got the same look on her face when Rick went all 'Castle' on her. He read to her stomach every evening.

 _"_ _You can never begin reading to your children too early," he had said piously._

 _She just rolled her eyes and replied, "Ears haven't even formed yet, Castle."_

 _"_ _It's good to get in the habit then."_

It was a beautiful thing to watch though, she mused. He was as enamored of their baby as she was, and it made her love him even more to watch him with his head in her lap talking to him.

Him. Hmmm…

"We need to come up with some sort of nickname to call the baby," she announced.

He didn't quite lose the beatific expression, but he did come back down to earth.

"What do you mean?"

"I refuse to call my child 'it', and I don't know… I know we're going to find out soon anyway, but in the meantime I just don't like the generic 'he/him' either." Kate studied her fingernails and went on. "If our baby's a boy, I want to know it, and use the pronoun appropriately. If our baby's a girl, I don't want to use the masculine even before finding out."

She glanced up at him.

"Stupid, I know, it's just the way the language is…"

Rick sat beside her.

"No, not stupid. I see your point. What did you have in mind?"

"Not 'peanut', that's been used too much."

He frowned, thinking.

"'Bean' has been used a lot too."

She turned to him earnestly.

"I had a friend who lovingly called hers 'her little parasite', but I don't like that at all."

"No, I don't either," he replied.

They both sat; wracking their brains, having completely forgotten the original conversation. Finally the light went on for Castle.

"Flash!" he exclaimed. "It's perfect!"

"Flash? Where did that come from?"

"Remember last month? Valentine's Day?"

Kate's lightbulb turned on.

"The onesie!"

"Exactly! Of course the character is male, Barry Allen and…"

Kate jumped in.

"Wally West, but hey, if Marvel can turn Thor into a woman, why can't Flash be a little girl?

"Precisely."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"I love our shared brain thing," Castle said.

"Never gets old," Kate agreed.

"So anyway, Mother usually goes to the parade, but she says she's not feeling up for it this year."

Kate blinked. She had to think back to what they'd been talking about before baby talk interrupted. Of course, baby talk could interrupt any time as far as she was concerned.

Flash. She smiled as she placed a hand on her belly.

Then it sunk in what Rick had said.

"Is Martha all right? Feeling okay?"

"I asked her, and she says she's fine," he answered and shrugged. "Time with family is what she said she wanted. I think she's going to start ramping up the hints on grandkids."

He smirked.

"Good thing we're announcing it next week," she smiled, then bit her lip.

Rick quirked his head.

"Something wrong?

"No…It's just…It's just been so nice to have this between ourselves. I know it sounds a little weird, but I'm almost sorry to make the announcement."

Rick was confused – and concerned.

"Why wouldn't you want to announce it? I mean I know it was a surprise…" He trailed off.

Kate rushed to counter his thoughts about her misgivings.

"Babe, don't think for a minute that I'm having second thoughts. What were we just talking about with naming little Flash? I mean that it's been just the three of us in this cocoon. It's like when we first got together. Us wanting to keep our relationship to ourselves for awhile? That little bubble was so nice then, and it's been nice now. But at the same time, I _do_ want to tell everyone. I want to shout it from the rooftops. I know that we planned to announce once the first trimester was over and here we are. I told you it was weird."

"Beats biting my head off," Rick stated with a smirk.

"Give it time, Castle," she grinned. "Now we've got a party to plan! Your mom is bringing green beer?"

 **XXXXXX**

Saint Patrick's Day arrived.

Castle was up early preparing food. He'd decided to try his hand at corning his own beef brisket, so a large plastic container containing the meat and brine had been taking up room in the refrigerator for the past 10 days.

Now it was out and rinsed, and Rick was busily chopping vegetables to put in the pot with the meat. The cabbage would be cooked closer to serving time.

Kate and Alexis were decorating the apartment together. Alexis had called her grandmother and told her she was spending the night at the loft since she wanted to help with the party. Alexis had moved in with Martha temporarily to give Rick and Kate alone time and they both knew it. She wasn't afraid that living with her grandmother might 'cramp her style', if anything, she was worried it would be the other way around.

The decision was made to go cheesy with the decorations. Green crepe paper draped across the ceiling, and poster board leprechauns and shamrocks covered the walls. And if Alexis was wondering why her father was so concerned with Kate getting up on a stepladder – rushing over to hold it steady whenever one foot was raised – she didn't mention it.

Games were also going to be cheesy.

Pin the Shamrock on the Leprechaun – which Kate was NOT going to participate in. The nausea was pretty much over, but she had no desire to be blindfolded and spun around.

Irish Pictionary. Alexis was in charge of that one, scouring the internet for Irish things to draw.

Poker. Not specifically Irish, but betting would be done with chocolate gold coins tossed into a leprechaun's pot.

Martha would be coming over in time for the parade to start at 11:00AM, green beer and all, though Kate wasn't sure how that would go since Jim was coming too. Well, she and her father could just not drink together. The beer was going to be the only alcoholic beverage anyway.

Rick and Kate had decided to just have a family party this time. They would make their announcement to Lanie and the boys later, along with the rest of the precinct. This would affect their family the most, so they wanted to keep it there at first.

Kate in particular was a little worried about Alexis' reaction.

 _"_ _It's been just the two of you for so long, Rick," she had expressed her concern in the shower that morning. "How is she going to react to us having a baby? It's like a whole new family for you."_

 _Rick smiled indulgently._

 _"_ _Kate, you're reading too much into this and you know you are," he turned her around and began washing her back. "If you had gotten pregnant right after we got together, she might have had some concerns. Were you baiting me? Just using a baby to get close to me…my money?"_

 _She turned back to him._

 _"_ _Rick, I…"_

 _He put a finger to her lips._

 _"_ _Hush. I know. And Alexis would have mentally slapped herself less than five minutes after thinking that, because she knows too."_

 _Kate sighed, leaning into his chest._

 _"_ _I don't know why I'm so nervous," she muttered as Rick put his arms around her. "It's not as if nobody's expecting this sooner or later."_

 _"_ _Everything will be fine, Kate. There's no wrong way to do this."_

No wrong way.

That had become Kate's mantra this morning, as she and Alexis finished up. She was still nervous, and she thought Rick was too, even with all of his encouraging words.

"How does it look?" Alexis asked her father.

Rick turned the burner down to simmer on the stove. Their meal would be a late lunch, but since the party was starting when the parade did, they had decided it was best to eat earlier than usual.

"I love the dollar store shamrocks," he teased.

Kate and Alexis laughed just as the doorbell rang.

Kate opened the door to Martha.

"Katherine, darling!" Martha exclaimed, pulling Kate into a hug. "I'm early, I hope that's all right."

She looked around the room.

"I love the 'elementary school' décor!"

Kate smiled. It hadn't occurred to her, but now she thought it was appropriate for the announcement.

She glanced at her husband. He was looking at her and she could tell he was thinking the same thing.

Martha pulled her aside.

"Katherine, I realized something as I was leaving this morning. The green beer was insensitive to your father. I decided not to bring it. I had thought the tackiness of it would be fun, but…"

"Thank you, Martha," Kate replied with some relief. While her declining the beer would have been a good segue to the pregnancy announcement, it made it easier for her dad to not have it here at all. Not just the temptation not being there, but being singled out and served something different. With a larger group it wouldn't have bothered him so much, but in an intimate setting like this, it would have.

A sharp rap sounded on the door.

"Speak of the devil," said Kate, moving to answer.

Opening the door, there was Jim, holding an enormous tin covered in a shamrock print.

"Hi, Katie. I brought your favorite popcorn," he nodded his head at the tin.

"Green sour apple popcorn?" she asked excitedly. Calling out to Rick she exclaimed, "Forget the corned beef and cabbage, Castle. I'm all set!"

That made Jim laugh.

"I knew I should have brought another tin," he joked. "But knowing Katie, she would have eaten that one too!"

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Dad," Kate deadpanned, taking the popcorn from him and putting it on the counter for later.

"Parade's starting!" Alexis called out.

Everyone moved over to the couch to watch.

 **XXXXXX**

Dinner was over and they all decided to wait on Pin the Shamrock until everybody had digested a little. So they were all sitting around Castle's poker table with the chocolate gold doled out to everyone, the leprechaun's pot (a Halloween trick or treating bucket in a cauldron shape spray painted gold) in the center.

The cards had been dealt and antes placed in the pot when Kate looked at Rick and they both knew it was time. She smiled inwardly at the 'shared brain thing' as Rick cleared his throat.

"So, um…we have an announcement to make," he stammered a little. Why was he so nervous? This was something they all were hoping for eventually.

Kate wiped her hands of the stickiness of the popcorn and squeezed his fingers.

He nodded and she stood, moving into the office to get something.

"What's the announcement, Dad?" asked Alexis.

Kate came back holding what looked to be a photograph.

I found out in January when Rick was in Europe, and I told him in February when he got back," Kate offered. "This seemed like the best time to tell everyone else."

She held the photo out to Jim.

"We're pregnant."

Jim took the ultrasound photo with shaking hands.

"Katie…" he trailed off, unable to say more.

He passed the photo to Martha and hugged his daughter tightly, tears cascading down both his and Kate's cheeks.

"I wish Mom was here," she whispered in his ear.

"Oh, she is, Katie. I don't doubt that for a second."

They parted to find Alexis hugging Rick and Martha waiting her turn with Kate.

"Oh, darling, words aren't enough."

They held each other, mother to mother, and Kate knew that Martha was going to be her 'go to' for advice.

Alexis piped up.

"So, details! When are you due? And am I getting a little brother or sister?" she asked seriously, but with a twinkle in her eye.

"And what if we want to keep it a surprise?" Rick asked her.

She gave him a glare that was softened by her smile.

"Dad, this is you we're talking about. Something like this? You're going to be all over it."

Everyone laughed as Rick fake-pouted.

"She's got you there, Castle," said Kate, her smile so bright it outshone the sun.

He smiled back, their shared happiness apparent to all.

"We're due September 12, Alexis," Kate answered. "And we haven't found out the sex of the baby yet, but we are going to. The appointment's next week."

"And we'll get everyone a copy of the ultrasound," cut in Rick.

Everyone cheered.

"Have you told everyone at the precinct?" asked Jim.

"Not yet," answered Kate. "We'll probably take Lanie and the boys to lunch tomorrow, and then announce it to the rest of the floor sometime next week."

"It'll have to be soon, otherwise Flash will make his or her own presence known," Rick told her.

"True, I could swear I felt a little pooch this morning. I'll definitely start showing soon."

"Flash?" Martha was curious.

"A nickname we came up with to call the baby," explained Rick. "Something different from anyone else."

"And a superhero name to boot," teased Alexis. "I wonder who came up with that, huh, Dad?"

"Oh, I don't know," cut in Jim. "Katie always loved her comic books."

Rick looked at Kate.

"We must be perfect for each other," he told her.

She smiled.

"Must be."

Jim pulled Kate into a hug again.

"I'm so happy for you, Katie."

He looked over at Rick.

"And you too."

"So are we, Jim," Rick stated. "For all of us."

Kate broke in, trying to dispel a little of the sappiness.

"I for one am looking forward to the three of you arguing over who gets to babysit."

She smirked.

"Oh, you won't be letting that baby out of your sight for six months, Katherine," retorted Martha.

Kate beamed.

"I can't wait."


	4. Chapter 4 - April Fool's - Castle's Bday

_A/N: Happy April Fool's Day! :) This chapter certainly tried to fool me, what with computer problems and accidentally deleting 400 words. But it finally came together. I hope you enjoy this one!_

 ** _March 31_** ** _st_**

It was the night before Castle's birthday, and he was spending an inordinate amount of time cleaning up the kitchen.

It wasn't that Kate was worried about him, exactly. He _was_ still disappointed by last week's ultrasound – she could tell, though he denied it. It wasn't anyone's fault the technician hadn't been able to see Flash's gender. But Rick had been so sure they would be among the lucky ones to find out so early.

 _"_ _We'll find out in May at the next ultrasound, Castle. Everything is right where it needs to be, and that's what's important."_

 _"_ _I know," he gave her the pout that he knew she pretended to be annoyed at. "I just don't want our baby to be average. And finding out early would've…"_

 _"_ _Hey, our baby will be anything but average," Kate gave him an affectionate glare. "Flash was just shy, that's all."_

 _Rick frowned._

 _"_ _The one time you want your kid to be an exhibitionist…"_

Tonight, though, Kate was wondering if he was as over it as he claimed. He'd been in the kitchen for over an hour, declining to come to bed, saying, "I just want it to be clean tomorrow so I don't have to worry about it."

As if she was going to make him do household chores on his birthday.

She decided to use the time to try to cheer him up. His birthday wasn't the _only_ thing happening tomorrow, and he loved being the butt of a prank as much as he loved pranking someone else.

Testing her trick on her own phone and laptop to make sure she could switch back to normal quickly, Kate peeked out through the bookcases in the office to see if Rick was still busy.

He was. He looked like he was cleaning out the refrigerator. Seriously?

Shaking her head and leaving him to it, she opened his laptop. He must have his phone on him, she thought. She'd get it later, after he went to sleep.

Resisting the temptation to read some of his Nikki Heat notes, she clicked on the settings icon.

Kate quickly changed the language to Russian, and the alphabet to Cyrillic. Biting her lip hard to keep from giggling, she could already hear Rick's _"Kaaaaaaaatttteee!"_ when he started writing tomorrow. And of course he would write. He always wrote at least an hour every day, much longer if he got on a roll.

She just hoped it wouldn't be at 3:00 in the morning this time. She wanted to be awake when it happened.

She heard him shut the refrigerator door and start walking toward the office. Quickly switching off the laptop she turned to the bookcase and glanced over the books there.

She pulled out the first book she saw, and began to glance through it as Rick came in the office.

 _"'_ _Forensics for Dummies'?"_ he asked, pulling her in for a tight squeeze from behind. "Isn't that book out of date?"

Putting the book under her arm to carry it to the bedroom, she hedged; "It might be interesting to see what's changed and what hasn't over the past decade."

"Fair enough."

"You finished in the kitchen?"

Rick yawned.

"Yes, and I'm ready for bed." He waggled his eyebrows. "Would you care to join me?"

She gave him a sultry smile.

"You want a nap?"

He bent a little and pecked her on the lips.

"I think the answer to that is 'yes'. Why would you think otherwise?"

Kate smirked.

"Let me go plug my phone in and I'll meet you in there."

"Oh, hey, plug mine in too, please?"

He handed her the phone. He was playing right into her hands, she thought, taking it.

Kate made a little show of plugging them in as she found the settings on Castle's phone. Quickly changing the language to Russian, she put the phone down in time to hear Rick calling to her.

Smiling, she strode into the bedroom.

 **XXXXXX**

 ** _April 1_** ** _st_**

Kate woke to the sound of the shower.

Damn it! She wanted to be up before him. How had he managed to wear her out so thoroughly?

 _'_ _Stupid question, Kate, and you know it.'_

She smiled to herself and hurriedly jumped out of bed. She wanted to make him breakfast in bed, but now that was out.

Honestly, the man who loves to sleep in whenever he gets the chance wakes up early on his birthday?

He was up to something, Kate knew it.

Thinking back to last night and her own tampering, she had an idea of what was going on.

Walking into the kitchen, she looked around warily, but everything seemed to be in its place.

 _'_ _Hmmm. What did he do?'_

Kate wouldn't have put it past Castle to not do anything – just make her think he did. And the more she looked around the loft the more she was convinced of it.

Nothing was where it shouldn't be. Small appliances were on the counter where they belonged. She gingerly opened the cupboard, but nothing jumped out at her and the coffee mugs were all in place.

She pulled the coffee canister towards her, halfway expecting one of those 'pop out of a can' snakes to scare the crap out of her.

Nothing.

Shaking her head at her paranoia, Kate went about making the coffee.

Castle wandered in carrying his laptop. He was dressed and ready to go.

"Morning."

"Morning, Castle," she pulled a mug for him out of the cupboard. She was unhappy that she couldn't have coffee, but the tradeoff was so worth it. "Happy birthday. I was going to make you breakfast in bed, but you're up early today. You feeling all right?" she teased.

He gave her his version of 'The Look'.

"Ha ha," he groused. "I'm excited for today."

Kate grinned as she opened the fridge. She was excited too.

They were going to the Natural History Museum. They'd been telling each other all week about their experiences – playing hide and seek with Alexis in the dinosaur exhibit, a fascinating anthropology class in college, pretending to be Han Solo and Princess Leia traveling through hyperspace in the planetarium, ducking inside to get out of a sudden rainstorm and then spending hours wandering.

Then she let out a little shriek.

Everything in the refrigerator was looking at her.

Castle had attached googly eyes to every item. From the milk to the mustard, the pickles to the chocolate ice cream topping, everything was staring.

"April Fools!" laughed Rick.

Kate turned to him, hand on her chest.

"This – this is what you were doing last night? I thought you were cleaning!"

She turned back to the fridge, pulling out eggs and bacon.

"I'm not sure I can eat something that's looking at me," she grumbled with a smile, turning back to grab cheese and an onion.

"I thought your dad fished?"

"Doesn't mean I didn't make him cut the head off before I would touch it. Drove him nuts."

Rick loved these little tidbits of information Kate would tell him. He was still discovering so much about her. She didn't share easily, but when she did it was like a revelation for the both of them. Him because it was another layer to her onion, and her because it was a memory that didn't hurt anymore.

Watching as she put the makings of their omelets together, he asked hopefully, "Smorlette?"

Now it was her turn to give him 'The Look'.

"I may be over the morning sickness for the most part, Castle. But that doesn't mean I don't still get queasy thinking about some things. And a smorlette is one of them."

"Humph," was all he said as he turned on the laptop.

"Kaaaaaaaatttteee!"

She spun around, spatula in hand, egg dripping onto the floor.

"What's the matter, Castle?" Then she saw his laptop was open.

"April Fools!"

"It's – it's – it's all in wingdings!"

Kate turned the computer to face her.

"Those aren't wingdings, Rick, it's Cyrillic. Russian."

He eyed her with teasing suspicion.

"How much did you read of Nikki?"

She laughed.

"None," she replied. "I was tempted, but I resisted."

She gave him a quick peck on the lips and turned back to the stove as he mumbled.

"My own wife. Pulling April Fools on my birthday."

Kate turned back to protest, but saw him grinning ear to ear, teasing her. She put the bowl with the whisked eggs back in the fridge along with the other ingredients, and dragged him back to the bedroom.

"Time for your birthday present, Castle."

He went. Willingly.

 **XXXXXX**

Later that evening they were having dinner with Martha, Alexis and Jim. They told about all they had seen at the museum and the pranks they'd played on each other earlier.

"Have you taken all the eyes off yet?" laughed Alexis.

"Not yet," Kate answered. She glanced at her husband. "And I don't know, having the milk looking back at me when I open the refrigerator door in the morning might help me wake up. Especially since I can't have coffee right now."

"We'll have to remember this one when Flash is about 4 or 5."

"You're making plans to freak out your kid before he's even born?" asked Jim. "I think you win the Dad Wars."

"You have no idea, Mr. Beckett," said Alexis, rolling get eyes as if she'd been taking lessons from Kate.

"Now Alexis, I may be about to become a grandfather," Jim beamed at Kate, "but 'Mr. Beckett' makes me feel old. Call me Jim, please."

"All right. Jim it is."

Rick and Kate eyed each other over their water glasses. It was wonderful to see their family getting along so well.

"Oh, I'd say it's the 'prank wars', Jim," Martha joined the conversation. "Never – and I mean _never_ drink anything remotely resembling Kool-Aid or fruit punch from him."

"You mean made with vinegar?" Jim asked sardonically. "That was Katie's go-to from the time she was 6 until she was 10."

Castle roared.

"You and Mom fell for it every time, Dad!"

"Only because you managed to give it to us when we were completely distracted by whatever cases we were working on," he retorted with a grin.

The evening went on that way, with memories of birthdays, April Fools day's and other holidays mixed with laughter and teasing. Jim surprised Rick with his banter with Kate. He'd always been so reserved. It was nice to see him break out of his shell and join in the fun.

"I give you a lot of credit for that," Kate remarked later when Rick mentioned it.

The party was over and they were getting ready for bed.

"How do you mean?" he inquired.

"Well, he's always been a quiet guy, he's not like you – God, that sounds awful, but I don't mean it that way. He's a great father but we didn't spend a lot of time together, except for baseball games."

She smiled softly, remembering.

"That's where we bonded when I was little. Mom enjoyed the game too, always watched on TV and came to a few games with us, but it was my dad's and my thing, you know? But we lost that when we lost her."

Rick broke in.

"Kate…you don't have to…"

She turned her smile on him.

"It's all right, Castle. It's a part of our relationship that we both wish we didn't have, but it's in the past. I remember when he got his one month chip. He was so proud. You know those coin collecting books, where you put coins in the little holes?"

Rick nodded.

"When he got that first chip he had one made, only he has it hanging on his wall. He's put every chip he's received in there. He's still hesitant to talk about Mom, but ever since you came along, he's been better."

"Why since I came along?" asked Rick. "I mean, not that I'm not happy to have helped in some small way, but 'ever since'? You and I had known each other for three years before I ever met him."

"You think I never told him how annoying you were?" she teased. "No, he saw what you did for me. Even before you met him. You remember how closed off I was after I crashed your book party. It took you awhile, and neither of us realized you were doing it, but you healed me in more ways than I can tell you. And Dad picked up on it right away. So, yeah. You've healed him too."

Rick blinked back tears.

"Wow. I think that's the best birthday present anyone's ever given me."

She walked into his arms.

"I hope I can give you as much as you've given me over the years," she said.

"You have, Kate. And more."

 _A/N: So, what did you think?_


	5. Chapter 5 - Easter

_A/N: I hope everyone has had a happy holiday! It's kind of interesting trying to write a chapter about Easter when Christmas is all around. A little confusing, which chapter am I writing? One thing on the timeline – I've mentioned that I'm using next year's calendar for figuring out due dates and such, but Easter is in March of next year. I'd planned from the beginning to have this chapter after Castle's birthday, and I didn't want to change that. So, just go with it, please. :) I hope you enjoy!_

 **XXXXXX**

It looked like an assembly line. And apparently, it was. Empty Easter baskets covered the kitchen table, and multiple bags of Easter grass were lined up on the counter. Bags of chocolate, jelly beans and small stuffed bunnies were sitting on the couch waiting to be unloaded.

Kate stared around the room in wonder, rubbing her 18 week bump.

"What is Daddy up to?" she asked Flash. She was always talking to her baby. Esposito in particular teased her about it, but she didn't care. As far as she was concerned, Espo was just jealous.

"And I'll bet your sister and your grandma are involved too, little one," she went on, continuing to rub her belly. It was soothing, and it made her feel closer to the baby.

But where was everyone? She'd texted Rick that she was on her way home from the precinct, and he'd replied he would see her at home. But the loft was empty.

"Looks like it's just the two of us, Flash."

Kate went to the refrigerator to try to figure out what to make for dinner, smiling at the googly eyes still on some of the bottles of condiments, but nothing appealed to her. It seemed like for the first time since the morning sickness eased, she wasn't hungry. She didn't know if that should concern her or not, but since she didn't know when Rick would be back she decided to wait.

What Kate really wanted to do was go to bed. She'd been waking up with a lot of energy, but at the end of the day she was just drained. Not that she hadn't been tired at the end of a long day before she was pregnant, but the weariness she felt now was like she'd either been awake for a week, or on the heavy duty pain meds she'd used after being shot.

She wanted to wait for Castle, though. He'd want her to eat something and she knew she should, plus she wanted to know what was up with all these baskets.

She decided to take a warm bath. And if she fell asleep in the tub – well – she fell asleep in the tub.

 **XXXXXX**

Kate awoke with a jolt and a splash. She had indeed fallen asleep in the bath, and wasn't sure what had woken her up.

Then she heard voices.

"She texted me earlier that she was on her way, she should be home by now."

Castle.

Kate took a deep breath to try to calm her pounding heart. She'd been feeling vulnerable ever since she got too big for her vest to fit around her – not that she'd been going on any takedowns, especially after finding out she was pregnant – but it was just the thought of not being able to put the vest on. Even though she knew she'd fit into it again after Flash was born, she felt she'd lost that protection now. She had curtailed all of the hands on aspects of her captaincy, spending the majority of her time in her office doing paperwork, but it hadn't eased her fears, or how ridiculous she felt for having those fears.

"It's a mother thing, darling," Martha had told her. "And it'll never completely go away."

Castle's voice was louder now, he'd come into the bedroom.

"No, she's not asleep," he called to someone in the living room. Alexis if Kate had to guess. "I should call the precinct, maybe something came up on a case…"

 _'_ _Goofball',_ Kate thought with a smile. He hadn't noticed the light was on under the bathroom door.

"Rick!" she called out. "I'm in here!"

The door to the bathroom burst open, making Kate jump.

"Kate!" exclaimed Rick. "I was ready to call out the bloodhounds!"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"I called out when Alexis and I got home, you didn't answer," he defended. "The lights were out, you hadn't texted or called…" he broke off. "I guess I panicked. Are you mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you, Rick? I fell asleep. Your calling out must have been what woke me up. I was a bit disoriented, that's why I didn't answer right away. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry I woke you," he knelt down beside the bathtub.

Kate snorted.

"I'm not," she replied, beginning to stand. "I'm getting pruny. Help me up?"

Rick quickly stood and grabbed a towel for Kate to wrap up in. He helped her out of the tub.

Kate smiled at him as she stepped out. In truth she really didn't need his help to get out – though she knew she would later on as the pregnancy progressed – she just liked this protective side of him.

"So what's with the production line out there?" she asked as she dried off and put on flannel pajamas. She'd been looking for maternity lingerie even though she wasn't that big yet, but hadn't yet found anything she liked. She wanted something that would make her feel sexy when she was big as a house and waddling. But for now, comfort was the name of the game.

"It's a project Alexis came up with," he answered. Take baskets around to kids in the hospital. She asked me to come up with a story about how the Easter Bunny asked us to deliver them."

"And you jumped at the chance."

"But of course. You know I love to tell a good story."

Kate put her arms around Castle's waist and kissed him gently.

"I do," she declared. "And I think it's sweet that you and Alexis are doing this for the kids. Is Martha here?"

"She wanted to come and 'give her flair to the baskets' as she put it, but she caught that bad cold and decided the kids were sick enough being in the hospital and definitely didn't need her germs adding to the mix."

Kate nodded.

"That's right. Is she feeling any better?"

"Some, but she still wants to take it easy on her own. She doesn't even want me to bring her chicken soup. She doesn't want to run the risk of giving her cold to you and Flash either."

She smiled at that. It still amazed her that this loving, giving group of people was her family now.

"So, how can I help?"

A smile lit up Rick's face.

"Now that we have everything, we just need to start filling baskets."

"I saw everything you had lined up on the couch, classic Easter basket stuff. What else did you need?"

"Well, we had to go out and get Peeps."

Kate groaned.

"Peep jousting again?" she smirked.

Rick looked affronted.

"You love it and you know it."

She laughed.

"So, anyway, you went out for Peeps?"

"Yes. We wanted one more thing for the baskets." Rick paused dramatically. "And for jousting."

Kate grinned. Flash was going to have so much fun with a daddy like Rick. She couldn't wait.

 **XXXXXX**

The next morning Rick called the car service and the three made multiple trips to load all the baskets into the town car. On the drive Kate and Alexis badgered him to tell them his story of how they came to be giving the baskets to the kids. He refused to say anything about it.

"It's like the next Nikki Heat," he remarked. "You'll just have to wait and see."

Kate thought she might be able to get him to cave, but not with Alexis in the car.

She shook that thought off as best she could. Not only was Alexis there, they were on their way to deliver Easter baskets to kids. In the hospital. Telling stories about the Easter Bunny. To kids. In the hospital.

She sighed silently and squirmed a little in her seat. Second trimester pregnancy libido right on schedule.

"Are you all right, Kate?" inquired Alexis, noticing how antsy she was.

"Uhhhh…" How to answer THAT question without scarring Alexis for life? Yes, she's an adult. Yes she knows Kate's married to her father and knows how pregnancy happens. But if Kate's father remarried, Kate certainly wouldn't want to know about his sex life.

Okay. _That_ thought tamped things down. She turned to Alexis.

"I'm fine. I'm still getting used to Flash's bump. The seatbelt doesn't fit the same," she hedged, looking at Castle.

The answer seemed to satisfy Alexis, but Kate could tell that Rick saw right through her. He might accept this story at face value, but the twinkle in his eye told her he recognized the real one.

God, it was a good thing Alexis was sitting between them. She turned and looked resolutely out the window.

When they finally pulled up in front of the hospital, Rick jumped out and ran inside, coming back out with a cart.

They loaded the baskets onto the cart, Kate and Alexis each had to carry a couple that wouldn't fit while Rick pushed it inside.

They began in the cancer ward. There was a large common area where the kids who were able went to play. The nurses had set up a chairs for Castle and Kate to sit on while he told his story; Alexis wanted to sit on the floor with the children.

The three first took baskets around to the kids who were too sick to get out of bed, talking to each child quietly, asking questions and telling funny stories to make them laugh. Most of the children's parents were there, and they helped open the basket they were given, showing their child the items inside.

One little girl broke Kate's heart when she burst into tears seeing the stuffed bunny she received. Her mother explained that she had wanted one for Easter, but was afraid the Easter Bunny would forget about her because she wasn't at home.

"She gets the Easter Bunny confused with Santa Claus," the mother told them.

"There are certain similarities," Castle replied. "He may not hop down the chimney, but he does bring gifts."

The mother smiled.

"And now she has her bunny to hold onto when she goes for her procedures. When I can't be with her." Tears filled the woman's eyes. "Thank you. There just hasn't been time for my husband or me to get her one with everything going on. You're good people."

"Our way of shining a little light for these kids," said Alexis. "Everybody needs a stuffed bunny at times."

Kate pulled the woman in for a hug – not saying anything, just one mother to another.

After the cancer ward the three went up to the surgical wing, where Kate sat holding the hand of a six year old who had just has his appendix out and was in a bad way. The little boy's mother had been deployed and his father was still trying to reach her superiors while also taking care of two other siblings. He was alone right now, and Kate couldn't just give him his basket and step away. He too clung to the soft rabbit doll and Kate was reminded of something her mother had once told her.

 _"_ _Never underestimate the power of a teddy bear."_

Bunnies were pretty powerful too.

 **XXXXXX**

Later that evening, after dropping Alexis off at Martha's apartment with a gallon of chicken soup from the deli, Rick and Kate plodded into the loft.

It had been a long day for Kate, physically and emotionally. As soon as their coats were off and hung up, she turned to Rick and burrowed into his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her and just held her for a minute, recognizing that she just needed the silence and him. She pulled back and smiled.

"Thanks, Rick."

"For what?"

"For being you, for having such a huge heart and instilling that in Alexis."

Tears filled her eyes.

"Oh, God. I'm getting all sappy again. I hate hormones!" she let out a watery laugh.

Rick chuckled.

"I don't mind so much," he squeezed her arms. "I love badass Kate, but I kind of love sappy Kate as well."

She smiled again and yawned.

"We should get to bed. Do you want some of this soup first? I bought some for us too."

"That does sound good," she agreed. "Let me get into pajamas first, okay?"

"Okay. But if you fall asleep, I will wake you up. You need to eat."

"Deal. I'm hungry so you might not have to, but Flash does wear me out."

"Just wait until he gets here."

"He?"

"Or she."

As she walked into the bedroom to change, Castle called out.

"We also need to discuss what happened in the car on the way over to the hospital."

She spun around.

He smirked.

"You know, suddenly I'm not quite so tired," she replied with a flirty grin. "Let me slip into something more comfortable…"

"I'll help," he cut her off, tossing the container of soup into the fridge.

He rushed toward her and grabbed her hand, pulling her toward the bedroom.

They reheated the soup a couple of hours later.

 **XXXXXX**

 _A/N 2: The conversation about Peep jousting comes from Richard Castle's Twitter account WriteRCastle. Last April there were several tweets (with pictures) of Peeps…jousting. I just couldn't resist mentioning it here._

 _I'd love to hear what you think!_


	6. Chapter 6 - Mother's Day

_A/N: Today (Dec 30) marks the one year anniversary of posting my first fic. It's been an enjoyable ride, with learning how to write and being amazed that anyone likes my stuff. I want to thank everyone who has ever favorited, followed reviewed or even just read my stories – I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed writing them. Happy New Year to all, and I hope you enjoy this Mother's Day chapter!_

 **XXXXXX**

 ** _Thursday_**

It was the big day.

Castle had been talking to Flash all week, extolling the virtues of _'_ being yourself'. 

_'_ _Be proud of who and what you are, and show it to the world!'_ driving Kate to distraction in the process.

"Do you _really_ think that's going to work, Castle?"

"Oh, come on! Have a little faith, Beckett!"

All she could do was laugh.

"Fine, but remember this when we're at the park when Flash is a year and a half old, and the diaper gets whipped off and he takes off running."

Rick looked at her in stunned disbelief and quickly leaned down and spoke to the bump again.

"Be proud of who you are, but only show certain aspects to the world when you're out here. Only show it all while you're in there."

Rick grinned up at her and she laughed harder.

Now they were in the waiting room at the OB/GYN's office. Kate hadn't been this nervous since she first found out she was pregnant. This was an important appointment. The baby was bigger and there was a much better chance they'd find out if Flash was a boy or girl.

"Sowhatareyouhopingfor?" she asked in a rush. They had talked about it before, each saying they didn't care, but it had been so early in the pregnancy that it was a hypothetical question.

Now it was crunch time, in a way, and Kate didn't want Rick to be disappointed.

He looked at her quizzically.

"A baby," he answered. "We've discussed this already, Kate. Where's this coming from?"

She put her head in her hands.

"I don't know, Castle!" she wailed. I wasn't this nervous at either of the other ultrasounds. What's the matter with me?"

Castle knelt on the floor and looked up at her earnestly.

"Absolutely nothing, sweetie," he told her. "This is the big one. They're looking at everything. It'll be longer and more detailed than your first, and even though it's the same level 2 as the last one, I'll bet it'll be even longer and more detailed than that one was, simply because Flash is bigger. Now, what did the website say? How big is Flash now?"

Kate's smile quavered, but at least it was a smile.

"About the size of a banana."

"Right, and at the last one Flash was the size of a lemon," Rick placed a hand on her bump. "I can't wait until he's the size of a watermelon."

"Why are the comparisons always fruit?" she huffed.

"I don't know, but it's making me hungry."

That got a laugh out of her.

"Castle?"

It was the nurse calling them back.

Rick stood and took Kate's hand, pulling her up.

"Come on, Kate. Let's have a look at what we made."

 **XXXXXX**

They walked into the examination room where the sonographer was waiting for them. Introductions were made and both men helped Kate onto the table.

Once she got situated and pulled her shirt up, the technician squirted the gel over her belly.

"Holy – jeez!" Kate yelped. "Did that come straight from the refrigerator or something? I swear it's colder than last time."

"What can I say?" replied the sonographer, whose name was Scott. "Every woman seems to feel it differently. A patient earlier today was in the middle of a hot flash and said it was the best thing she'd felt all day."

Kate shivered. The matter of fact way that Scott was going about the business helped put her at ease. The nervousness – while not gone – was fast being replaced with anticipation.

Scott switched on the machine and placed the transducer on the gel. As he moved it around Kate's stomach, images began to appear on the monitor.

Flash's back was facing them, showing a perfect image of the spine. Scott froze the image and made a copy, then moved the transducer to a different area.

About 15 minutes into the exam, Flash started moving around, turning to face toward them. Kate had felt the baby moving for about a week, thrilling both her and Rick. But seeing it as well as feeling it brought on a whole new level of emotion for her.

"Look at that, Rick," she exclaimed. "That's our baby!"

Rick's smile matched her own.

"Flash knows we're watching and is squirming around to say 'hi'."

They watched in awe a few minutes more, then Scott broke into their little bubble.

"So, the question of the hour is – do you want to know?" he asked.

"We do," they blurted at the same time.

"All righty," Scott moved the transducer some more, trying to get a good view.

When he stopped, both Rick and Kate leaned toward the monitor.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Oh, God, it is!"

And then neither could see or say any more because they both were crying.

 **XXXXXX**

Kate came out of the room riding what could only be described as a cloud. Scott had given them copies of the best views of Flash and they were going to the drugstore to make more for Jim, Martha and Alexis.

In the car Rick asked, "When and how do you want to announce it to everyone?"

Kate thought a moment.

"How about the same way we announced we were pregnant? Family first and then Lanie and the boys?"

"Sounds good, you want to call everyone over tonight?"

"Actually, no? Unless you want to, I mean. I was thinking Sunday since we're having everyone for dinner?"

"Mother's Day?" Rick asked. "That's perfect."

Kate bit her lip pensively.

"I also want to visit my mom that day," she almost whispered. "I want to tell her first."

"Of course, Kate."

 **XXXXXX**

 ** _Sunday_**

Kate awoke Sunday morning to the smell of pancakes cooking, bacon frying and coffee brewing. Rick had offered to forego coffee as long as she couldn't drink it, but Kate refused.

"You shouldn't deprive yourself on my account, Castle," she'd argued. "Besides, if I can't drink it, I at least want to smell it."

He relented with a grin. Far be it for him to deny her such a small thing.

Flash was sitting on her bladder so she got up and took care of things in the bathroom. She quickly brushed her teeth then began making her way to the kitchen. Then she saw the note Rick had taped to one of the bookcases.

 ** _"_** ** _It's Mother's Day, and YOU are a mother. You are having breakfast in bed. Don't even_** ** _think_** ** _about coming to the kitchen."_**

Kate smiled at that and went back to the bed. Breakfast in bed was always a good plan. She had just pulled the covers back over her legs when Rick came into the room carrying a tray.

Kate sat up straighter and smiled as Rick placed the tray in front of her. Pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs adorned the tray, along with maple syrup, butter and a tall glass of orange juice.

"Wow, Castle," she murmured in awe, suddenly starving. "Are we sharing?"

"Nope, this one's all for you. Happy Mother's Day."

She beamed.

"You did make yourself some, right?" she asked. "I don't want to eat alone."

"Be right back."

He kissed her and ran back out to the kitchen, coming back with a tray of his own.

They talked about everything and nothing, never seeming to run out of things to say.

"You finished?" asked Rick.

Kate snorted.

"I've done everything but lick the plate clean," she replied. "Isn't it obvious?"

He smirked.

"I was just waiting to see if you were going to do that."

She glared at him.

"Very funny, Castle. I am eating for two, you know."

He leaned in and pressed his mouth to hers.

"I know."

He collected the trays and took them to the kitchen to clean up, while Kate got in the shower. Normally Rick would have joined her, but there was too much to do today to play. She finished quickly and tried to trade places with him, taking over doing the dishes, but he refused to let her.

"I know we're kind of in a rush," he kissed the tip of her nose. "But you're going to be pampered today, so get used to being waited on hand and foot."

Oh, yeah. Kate could get used to that. At least for one day.

 **XXXXXX**

Half an hour later they were on their way to the cemetery. Kate usually went there alone on Mother's Day – preferring to talk to her mom and reminisce without feeling self-conscious about talking to a headstone if someone was with her.

But this time she wanted Rick with her. It wasn't the first time he'd gone to see Johanna – Kate had taken him once before, just after they got married. Rick had never been so nervous in his life, and felt ridiculous for it. But somehow he just _knew_ that Kate's mother was there, sizing him up. He hoped she didn't find him wanting.

It was much the same today. For all of Kate's reassurances that her mother would have loved him, and the fact that he got along with Jim, Rick was still a bit wary of Kate's side of the family. He hadn't had much luck with in-laws – Meredith was the family princess after all, and getting pregnant had not gone over well, though Alexis had been loved and fawned over when she was born.

Gina's father had always treated him like 'hired help', since Gina was his publisher – his 'boss' so to speak. The man had never let Rick forget that he'd married up, and she had married down.

Still, he thought, even they were better than Sheila Blaine would have been. As much as he had loved Kyra, he had dodged a bullet with that one.

But none of these women held a candle to Kate. She truly was the joy in his heart. And based on that alone, he thought he would have loved Johanna Beckett too.

He was jolted out of his reverie when the town car stopped in front of the cemetery gate. Kate had been silent on the ride as well, both lost in their own thoughts and memories.

"You ready for this?" Kate asked him.

Just like that all his nerves were gone.

"She'd be so proud of you, Kate," he smiled. "And so excited for the news we have for her."

He opened his door and ran around the car to open hers and helped her out. She didn't really have any trouble getting out of cars yet, but back seats were always awkward, and she kind of liked him helping her when she was being Kate. It was another story when she was being Beckett, but she was letting Kate out a lot more, surprising Rick and herself with how fun loving she could be.

The morning was cool, and Kate was wrapped up in an overlarge sweater. She'd bought it a week ago knowing she'd grow into it, but for now it drowned her, making her look like a little girl – baby bump notwithstanding.

The two picked their way through the headstones and uneven ground, finally reaching their destination. Kate was already crying, the cool breeze making her shiver, wrapping herself deeper into the sweater.

"Hi, Mom," she almost whispered. "Happy Mother's Day, I miss you."

She reached out and pulled Rick to her side.

"So, Mom, you know how the last time I came out here I told you I was pregnant? And I'd told you we hadn't found out yet what we were having but we wanted to?"

She glanced at Rick who had an expression on his face that almost defied explanation. A combination of love, awe and amazement that they were there – together – and no plans to be anything but together for years to come.

Kate smiled at him and turned back to Johanna Beckett's headstone.

"Well, last Thursday was the appointment."

She took a deep breath. This would be the first time she said it out loud, outside the loft.

"It's a boy."

 **XXXXXX**

 _A/N: What did you think? Father's Day up next…_


	7. Chapter 7 - Father's Day

_A/N: Woohoo! This chapter puts me over the 15,000 words for the mini ficathon! And we're halfway through the fic. I'm going to try to hit 30,000 by Feb. 1, but we'll see how it goes._

 _This chapter got long, but I like where it went. I'm really enjoying writing this story, and I hope you enjoy reading it._

An explosion had hit the loft. There was no damage, but it seemed that someone (most likely Martha and/or Alexis) had shot off a cannon filled with baby clothes.

Blue was everywhere.

Castle grinned. Flash still had three months to go, but this little guy was making a big impression already.

Kate had surprised him over the last couple of weeks since finding out Flash's gender. (A boy! They're having a boy! Every time he thought about it he got giddy.) She hadn't done a whole lot of shopping herself, yet, but Rick had assumed she would – not _completely_ put the kibosh on going nuts with the shopping – but maybe request to tone it down a bit and not spoil him before he gets here.

But she hadn't. She'd told him she was going to let Martha, Alexis and Lanie have their fun buying Flash everything he needed, clothes-wise.

"It makes them happy, Castle," she had told him. "I'm excited, you're excited, they're excited. I don't want to dampen anyone's enthusiasm."

Thus the explosion of blue in the living room.

Kate came out of the bedroom, fastening her watch. She looked up, and stopped short.

"Wow."

"I know, right?" He eyed her closely, wondering what else she would say.

She picked up an adorable striped shirt and shorts set and looked at the tags.

"9 months?" she raised her eyebrow at Castle.

"Well, to be fair, Alexis didn't fit into newborn sizes when she was born. So it is good to have a variety."

He looked around the chaos again.

"On the other hand, Flash might have a complete lifetime wardrobe before he gets here."

Kate laughed.

"When did they bring it all over? It wasn't here last night, was it?"

Rick shrugged.

"I don't know. It might have been. It was late when we got home last night and we left the bedroom light on so we wouldn't have to turn on the living room lights. But it could have been early this morning, as dead to the world as we were. But if it was, that would mean it was Alexis. There's no way Mother would have been awake before us – let alone coming over before we were up."

She smacked his arm softly.

"Be nice." She looked around again. "What are we going to do with all of it?"

"Go through it all, I guess." The task looked daunting. "Find out what we like and donate the rest?"

Kate nodded and pecked his lips.

"Darn it, I'm running late for a meeting or we could go through it together."

"We still can, Kate," he told her. "I'm not doing this without you. I will put it all into neater piles. Other than that the most I'll do is sort everything by shades of blue."

Kate laughed again as she walked out the door.

 **XXXXXX**

Kate did have a meeting, but it wasn't work related. A few days after Kate discovered she was pregnant, she had thought of something to give to Rick for Father's Day. This meeting was to look over the final artwork and make any changes if necessary.

"I've got to be honest, Captain Beckett," the man from Marvel Comics confided. "I'm kind of surprised Rick hasn't asked us to do this himself."

Kate smiled at the use of her title.

"I kind of am too," she laughed, taking a sip of the water he had offered her when she arrived. "He's the kind of guy who would absolutely fangirl over finding a super suit."

The Marvel rep let out a hearty laugh at that.

"That definitely sounds like Rick." He sobered. "So, pending your final approval of the story we've come up with, we have a five issue arc for him, to be delivered monthly through October…"

Kate broke in.

"The first issue needs to be sent to me before Father's Day, if that's feasible."

He looked up.

"Oh?"

"It's my gift to him," she shrugged.

"Of course. I don't see any problem with that, we have the artwork as well as the synopsis of the storyline to show you," he handed her a portfolio. "It's all in there for you to look at."

They sat quietly for a few minutes while Kate perused the file.

 _Mild mannered writer Richard Castle walks down one of the seedier streets in New York City on what his editor calls a 'research crawl'. He's dressed for the part – grungy jeans, hoodie hiding his face. He doesn't really want to be there, but he has no choice. His editor will fire him if he doesn't come up with something exciting and dangerous. He walks into an alley, figuring his epitaph will be something along the lines of 'this exciting and dangerous enough for ya?' He finds a mysterious box and opens it._

Kate continued reading then nodded her approval of the story and said, "I think I'm looking forward to reading this myself."

She looked over the art, again nodding her assent. The artist had captured Castle very well.

"The storyline is fairly Peter Parker-y, but without the spiders, and with a smattering of _Greatest American Hero_. I think we can pull off something Rick will enjoy."

"Well, I think what you've come up with is great so far," she handed the portfolio back.

"Excellent," the representative replied, taking the folder and placing it on his desk. "We'll get started on this immediately.

They both stood and shook hands.

"Thank you so much for doing this for Rick," Kate stated.

"It's our pleasure. I hope we can do another adaption of one of his _Storm_ novels soon as well."

"I'm sure he'd love that. Thanks again."

 **XXXXXX**

The afternoon before Father's Day, Kate began making plans with Alexis.

"Is this weird for you?" Kate inquired.

"What do you mean, Kate? You've celebrated the day with us."

"Yeah, but now there's someone else to call him 'Daddy', even though he's not quite here yet."

Alexis gave Kate a passable version of Lanie's glare.

"I'm being stupid, aren't I?" she winced.

"Little bit," replied Alexis. "But maybe I'll give you a pass since you're pregnant…with _my brother_."

Kate smiled.

"Kate, do you realize how long I've wanted a co-conspirator to play pranks on Dad? Someone to blame when I've knocked over a lamp and broken it when he wasn't home?"

She laughed at the look on Kate's face.

"I know we're past that. Technically I'm old enough to be Flash's mother – don't tell Dad that, he'll have a conniption – but believe me Kate, I'm just as excited to have a brother as you are to be a mother, even with the age difference. I've shared Dad with you for years, and that's a good thing. And it'll be a good thing to share him with Flash too."

A weight lifted off Kate's shoulders that she hadn't realized was there. Rick had reassured her countless times about her place in the Castle family and Alexis' reaction to her, but for whatever reason, she had needed to hear it from Alexis herself.

She gave Alexis a relieved smile.

"I know all this, of course. But lately it seems I need more reassurances than I should."

"Maybe you should talk to Gram, I mean, you can always talk to me, but she's at least had a kid and knows what it's like."

Kate nodded.

"I have and I will talk to her. She's been so helpful with all this mother stuff. I don't know what I'd do without her – you too."

Alexis smiled.

"That's what we're here for," she pulled Kate in for a hug. "Now back to Father's Day. I like to make breakfast in bed for him…"

"I know you do. Would you like me to help make it this time?"

"No, if that's all right. It's one of my gifts every year. I've been doing it since I was 4 and the only thing I was allowed to do in the kitchen was make toast. Gram supervised, but I did it myself. Dad said it was the best jam with a little bit of toast he'd ever had."

That made Kate laugh.

Alexis grinned.

"I guess I went a little overboard on the jam," she continued, laughing. "He had to use a spoon to eat it. So, anyway, even though I've gotten a little better at cooking breakfast, I would like your help with something."

Kate leaned forward listening.

"Anything I can do."

"I don't want him to wake up too early. He's usually pretty good about staying in bed until I get there with the food, but just once I'd like to wake him up."

Kate was a little confused.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked warily.

"I don't want you to drug him or anything like that," Alexis quickly replied.

"Well, that's a relief," joked Kate, "but I'm a little bewildered."

Alexis blushed bright red. All the cliché's applied.

Red as a tomato, red as a beet. The young woman was turning purple.

Then Kate understood what she was getting at and felt her own cheeks warm.

"I – um – I'm planning on spending the night, of course," Alexis stammered. "So I can get up early. I want to have an epic laser tag battle tonight to kind of wear him out. Do you want to play?"

Kate was caught between being dejected and happy when she answered.

"I'd love to, but my vest won't fit around me anymore.

"Flash is making himself known," Alexis smiled. "He is kinda poking out there."

Kate smiled and rubbed her belly.

"He certainly is growing," she huffed a little ruefully. Lanie said I was waddling yesterday."

Alexis laughed out loud at that.

"What did you say to her?"

"I didn't really say anything, just gave her a death glare," she smirked. "Truth be told though, I feel like I've been waddling for a week."

"It must have only just started being really noticeable, then. Or maybe it's because Lanie's a doctor. I haven't noticed, and you know very well that Dad would have said something if he'd noticed."

"That's true," Kate became thoughtful. "But going back to wearing him out," she blushed again. "Your dad likes to sleep in. You know, sometimes he's up half the night writing."

"True, but…" Alexis countered. "Remember you told me he got up early for Mother's Day."

"Yeah," Kate conceded. "But that was a little different. He was cooking breakfast for me. But I admit he did get up early on his birthday. He was already up and in the shower before I woke up."

"That's Dad. Whenever something good for him has the potential to happen in the morning, he'll wake up. Even if he's been up writing. Birthday, Christmas, even you calling him for a case before you made Captain. Just once I'd like to actually wake him up. Even though he knows I make him breakfast every year and it's not much of a surprise."

Kate nodded.

"Well, I'll do my best to exhaust him, but if he smells what you're cooking, I can't promise he won't wake up anyway."

"Just keep him in the bedroom, that's all I ask."

 **XXXXXX**

Father's Day dawned on a beautiful morning. Kate awoke hearing Alexis in the kitchen, puttering about as quietly as she could. It must have been Alexis trying to sneak around that woke her. Cop instincts kicking in and all that.

She looked over at Rick. Her ministrations last night seemed to have done the trick. He was lying on his stomach with one arm hanging over the edge of the bed, face mashed into the pillow, snoring blissfully.

Kate wanted nothing more than to brush his hair back from his forehead and caress the small scar above his eye, but she didn't want to wake him. He looked so young when he was asleep.

Rick's eyes cracked open.

"I can hear the gears rolling around in your head," he yawned. "It's really loud."

Kate smiled.

"Sorry I woke you."

She gave in to her earlier temptation and pushed his hair back. She could imagine doing this with Flash.

Leaning in for a kiss, she said; "Happy Father's Day."

"Mmmm. Thank you," he replied sleepily. "Alexis making breakfast?"

Kate opened her mouth, then closed it. She should have known he'd know. It's not as if it was a real surprise since Alexis did this every year. But she decided to play dumb anyway.

"I don't know. Does she usually do that?"

Rick sat up and gave her a smacking kiss on the lips.

"You know she does. You're just trying to keep me from heading out there."

"Well, yeah, I am. She did want to wake you up with breakfast."

A sizzle was heard coming from the vicinity of the kitchen.

"And there's the bacon!" Rick exclaimed, rubbing his hands together.

Kate laughed. He was such a kid. That 9 year old on a sugar rush had never completely gone away.

"What? I'm hungry!"

"I'm sure it won't be much longer, Babe. Try and go back to sleep – or at least pretend to – Alexis really wanted to wake you up with food."

"I guess I could do that," Rick mumbled, dropping his head back on the pillow and closing his eyes. "Anything for my little girl."

To Kate's surprise, he was sound asleep again.

 **XXXXXX**

Fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the bedroom door. Alexis came in carrying a tray with three plates of food, three glasses of juice and two cups of coffee. Placing the tray on the side table she whispered in his ear; "Happy Father's Day, Dad."

Castle jolted awake and eyed Alexis wearily.

"Thanks, Pumpkin," he mumbled, then sat up.

"Alexis, you didn't have to make me anything," Kate protested.

Alexis waved away her objection.

"Of course I did, Kate. Oh, Dad, Gram called me and told me to tell you she'll be over this afternoon to give you her gift."

"Thanks, Honey."

"This looks fantastic, Alexis."

They ate in silence for a few minutes, then Alexis asked, "How far did you guys get with sorting through all those baby clothes?"

He glared at her good naturedly, and she smiled at him.

"Did you and your grandmother buy out every baby store in the city?" he asked.

"Well, no…we only bought boy stuff. We'll hold off on the girl stuff for the next one."

Kate blanched.

"Can I at least get through _this_ pregnancy first?" she pleaded. "And maybe a year or two?"

Alexis smirked at both Kate and Rick, who also had a deer in the headlights look. It was always fun to harass her dad, but she'd never realized how much enjoyment she would get teasing her stepmother. Then she relented.

"All right, fine," she declared. "Dad, you've had my gift…"

"And a delicious gift it was," he interrupted.

Alexis nodded her thanks.

"…So it's time for Kate's gift."

The word 'time' made Kate glance at the clock on her bedside table.

"Ooh, and I've got to get ready. I'm taking my dad out to lunch this afternoon."

She stood and rushed to the closet, bringing out two boxes, both fairly flat, one wide and one narrow.

Sitting back on the bed, she handed Rick the narrow box.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't this a little cliché?" he asked. "For Father's Day? It's obvious what it is."

"Watch it, bub," Kate countered. "That box is from your son."

Castle looked up at Kate with a big beaming smile. He leaned down and placed a kiss on her protruding belly.

"I love this already, Flash! It's the best tie in the world, and I'm going to wear it to every meeting at Black Pawn from now on."

Kate let out a loud snort.

"I have no doubt you will, Castle," she replied. "But you might want to do it quietly."

Rick looked at Alexis, who shrugged. She looked just as confused by that as he felt.

"How does one wear a necktie _quietly_?" he asked.

Kate flashed him her full on knockout smile.

"Open it and see."

He sat dazed for a moment. He loved it when Kate was playful.

Turning his attention back to the box in his hands, he quickly unwrapped it and lifted the lid.

He gasped.

"Bubble wrap?" he squealed as both Kate and Alexis winced a little at his high pitched voice.

He looked up at Kate.

"You got me…I mean…Flash got me a bubble wrap tie?"

Kate beamed.

"Yeah, we thought you'd like that one," she laughed.

He leaned to kiss her belly again.

"I am _SO_ going to wear this to my next meeting! Best Father's Day ever!" he exclaimed as he gave Alexis a squeeze.

"Now open the other one," Kate urged, handing him the wide box excitedly.

"I know you'll like this, Rick; I want it after you. I've seen parts of it, but I didn't peek at the completed version. Alexis, I think you'll enjoy it too."

It was rare that Kate got so excited. It fed into Rick's enthusiasm and he ripped off the wrapper.

It was a comic book – _The Invisible Dart_ – and on the cover was a superhero who looked very much like Rick.

He looked at Kate with awe.

"You made me a comic book? I've always wanted to be a superhero! Wow!"

She leaned in and kissed him.

"I know."

The kiss continued until Alexis broke in.

"You know, I can't wait until Flash is here and then we can be grossed out by you two together," she groused in mock disgust.

"One of the most fun things about being a parent," Castle replied. "Is embarrassing your kids. It's nice to know I haven't lost my touch."

Alexis rolled her eyes and hugged him.

"I hope you never do."

Castle pulled Kate into the hug.

"Definitely the best Father's Day ever."

 _A/N: I was looking online for cheesy Father's Day ties for this story and I found a site that sells bubble wrap neckties. I saw that and it screamed Castle to me. :) One disclaimer on the comic book – I have NO clue how comic book publishing works and all I could find online was stuff about submitting your own work. So if what Kate did in having a 5 issue series seems unrealistic, (and I have no doubt it does) please just suspend your disbelief and go with it. :) I picked Marvel because Castle does have a relationship with them through the Derrick Storm graphic novels._

 _What did you think?_


	8. Chapter 8 - Independence Day

_A/N: This one went where it wanted to go, and took forever to get there. It's the longest chapter in this fic so far, and maybe the longest chapter I've done. Even though it did kind of go all over the place, I do like it. I hope you do too. This one is for #CastleFanficMonday_

 **XXXXXX**

Kate lay stretched out on the bed in the blissfully air-conditioned bedroom.

They had just arrived in the Hampton's. The two hour drive had never bothered Kate before, but it had completely knocked the wind out of her sails this time. At first she had thought that going for a short walk and stretching her legs would help perk her up, but walking from the car to the bedroom had just worn her out even more.

It hadn't helped that Flash was pretending to be a bowling ball the entire drive.

She heard Rick come into the room.

"I'm not moving, Castle," she mumbled, not quite asleep, but not far from it.

"Of course you're not," he assured, sitting on the edge of the bed and picking up a foot. "You're going to stay right here and relax while I give you the best foot rub of your life."

Kate smiled at him and nuzzled her head deeper into the pillow. She missed sleeping on her stomach, but it was only a couple more months and she could do it again.

Then she opened her eyes again and gave Rick a sleepy death glare.

"So help me, Castle if you tickle me again…" she trailed off at the feeling of his fingers pressing deeply into her arch.

"Nah, we'll save that for when you're awake," he waggled his eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes. "But seriously, Kate, it's a long weekend. You can sleep the whole time if you want."

She huffed a laugh.

"That would go over really well with our guests."

She felt him shrug.

"Fair enough. But you can sleep until they get here on the Fourth."

Kate was drifting further into sleep so she didn't say any more.

But damn if that didn't sound good to her.

 **XXXXXX**

An hour later, Kate came down the stairs, still somewhat bleary eyed, but much refreshed. A little to her dismay, she noticed that Rick had unpacked everything and was in the kitchen cooking.

"Babe, you should have waited to unpack, or at least have left me some," she wrapped her arms around him from behind as he was standing at the stove, stirring something that smelled delicious. "You shouldn't have had to do it all yourself."

Rick set the spoon down and turned, wrapping Kate up into a tight cocoon.

"Kate, you were exhausted. The drive was long and Flash wasn't helping, not to mention it's July and you're nearly seven months pregnant. What sort of a husband would I be if I didn't allow you relax?"

She snuggled closer, still a little sleepy.

"You couldn't be anything other than the best husband in the world."

"Only because you make me that way, Kate."

She pulled back and laughed.

"Okay, now that we've got the day's sappiness out of the way – even though what I said was all true – what are you making for dinner? Flash is hungry."

"I figured I'd make shepherd's pie," he turned back to the stove and started stirring again.

Kate smiled.

"Ooh, that sounds good. I thought that smelled like lamb." She peeked over his shoulder at the meat sizzling in the skillet. "What can I do to help?"

Rick stopped stirring again and stood thinking.

"Hmmm. Nothing immediately, but how about throwing together a salad when it's ready?"

"I can do that."

He turned to face her again.

"For now, go sit out on the back porch where there's usually a breeze, and read a good book, preferably one of mine," he smirked.

"That sounds like a plan. I've been wanting to read Nikki again."

"I love you, Kate… you know, just in case you forgot."

She'd given up wearing heels for the remainder of her pregnancy, so she lifted up on tiptoe to kiss him.

"I may have pregnancy brain, but I couldn't forget that. I love you too, Babe."

 **XXXXXX**

Dinner was delicious and the two made plans for the rest of the weekend.

Martha and Alexis were coming up either late tonight or early tomorrow morning, Alexis promising to call tonight to let them know either way.

Jim was also coming tomorrow, though he wasn't sure what time he would get there.

"I haven't explored the area for a long time, Katie," he had told her. "It'll be fun to wander."

Lanie was coming on Monday if she didn't get a body, an Javier was also on call through Sunday. Murder never took a rest, even on the nation's birthday.

Unfortunately, Kevin and his family weren't coming. Jenny was worried about traveling that far with 2 month old Sean, and 2 and a half year old Sarah Grace wasn't much better on a long drive.

They finished eating and took their empty plates to the sink where Rick rinsed them off and placed them in the dishwasher. Kate busied herself with putting away the leftovers.

"So, are you up for a walk on the beach in the morning?" Rick asked. "Or do you want to do what we talked about earlier?"

Kate blanched a little. Had she agreed to do something or go somewhere while she was half asleep? She couldn't remember what they had said.

"I…" she began.

Rick looked puzzled at her slightly panicked expression, but then caught on.

He laughed.

Kate scowled.

"Don't make fun of me for forgetting things while I was sleeping," she grumbled. "I told you all my brain cells are going down to Flash."

Rick pulled her close and kissed her forehead with a smack. She was adorable.

"Well, if that's really the case, he'll be the smartest kid since Alexis."

"We've known that from day one, Castle," Kate yawned and suddenly remembered what they'd talked about.

"Sleeping the weekend away," she continued, taking Rick's hand and moved toward the stairs. "We'll see how I feel in the morning."

 **XXXXXX**

Kate did sleep longer than she normally would have, quite a bit longer, in fact. Even when she had the day off, she kept the phone alarm turned on. But she hadn't even heard it. Was she really that sound asleep? Curiously, she picked the phone up and found it turned off.

"Castle!" she yelled.

He came running.

"You called? Are you all right?"

She wanted to be snarky, but she just couldn't. She was afraid that like her brain all her sarcasm was going down to the baby. It made her nervous for the future.

"You turned my phone off didn't you?"

"Yes I did, and I'm not sorry. The two of you needed the sleep."

She tried to give him a half-hearted glare, but in truth, she wasn't angry at him, she wasn't even a little miffed. Sleeping in _had_ been good for her, and she felt much more like herself than she'd felt in some time. She stepped closer and kissed him.

"Well, I _was_ going to get mad at you for messing with my phone, but I think I'll thank you instead. Flash and I needed that."

He hugged her as close as he could, what with her protruding stomach.

"You want to go for a walk on the beach before your dad gets here?"

"What about your mom and Alexis?"

Alexis had called last night while Kate was brushing her teeth. She and her grandmother were on their way, and they had arrived after Rick and Kate had gone to sleep.

"Oh, they've been up and gone for an hour," Rick replied. They went to pick up some last minute things for tomorrow."

Kate was surprised she'd slept through it all.

"What time is it?" she asked.

He glanced at his watch.

"A little after 10:00."

Kate looked at him in surprise.

"10:00? I haven't slept that long when I wasn't sick in I don't know how long." She rubbed a hand over her belly. He's going to keep making me this tired when he gets here isn't he?"

Rick grinned.

"I'm afraid your days of being well rested are pretty much over," he stated. "I didn't actually get to sleep last night until I heard Mother and Alexis walk in."

Kate felt a little guilty because she hadn't fretted about his daughter and mother traveling, and it must have shown, because Rick continued.

"Kate, it's okay…"

"Okay that I wasn't worried about your family on their drive?" she interrupted, then amended; "Our family?"

"Kate, there is a difference. Alexis is my baby, just like Flash is our baby. I was there when she was born, I was there when she first walked, when she first went to school, when she got her first crush on a boy when she was ten. You met Alexis when she was fifteen, already more mature than her father – though to be fair, she was that when she was ten."

Kate grinned at that.

"You know Alexis as a smart, capable adult. You've never known her when she was really vulnerable as a kid, because you never knew her as a kid. Flash will be different because he will be all of that to you. And yes, the fact that he is a part of _you_ , physically, is a measure of it. It doesn't mean that you love Alexis less, and Flash more, but it's different. And I don't know if that explains it, or if I've just completely confused you all the more."

He pulled her into a hug.

"There's also the fact that this little guy takes a lot out of you. Even with that hour nap yesterday you were exhausted. Don't be so hard on yourself, Kate.

Kate buried her face in his chest.

"You're too good to me," she quavered.

"Nah, I'm just good enough." He pulled back to look at her face. "Now, about that walk?"

She smiled.

"Let's go."

 **XXXXXX**

They came back sooner than Rick had originally thought they would. Even with the ocean breeze, the July heat affected Kate. She wasn't miserable on the walk, but they turned back when she began to be uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry, Rick, I just…" she began.

"Kate, stop apologizing for everything." He wasn't exasperated with her, but he wanted to make her understand it was okay for her to feel the way she did and that he understood.

"Every woman I've ever known who's had a baby in late summer/early fall has had a rough time with the heat. You're not alone."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, then glanced up at him with a teasing smirk.

Rick growled.

"There's my Kate."

As he pulled her close for a kiss, they heard a car coming into the driveway.

"Oh, that must be Alexis and your mom," Kate exclaimed, extracting herself from Rick's arms.

"You don't think it's your dad?"

She shrugged.

"I guess it could be, but he did say he wanted to take his time. I'm not expecting him until closer to dinnertime."

The question was answered when a flash of bright colors rounded the corner of the house.

"Katherine, darling!" It was indeed Martha. "You were still asleep when we left, Richard said the drive wore you out. How are you feeling?"

"Much more awake, Martha, thank you," Kate smiled at her mother-in-law's exuberance. "Though the heat is still getting to me."

"Ah, the joys of late pregnancy in the summertime. On the plus side, you're in the home stretch."

"Yes, I'm really getting excited about it," Kate glanced around. "Where's Alexis?"

"She went straight inside to start boiling potatoes for the salad tomorrow," answered Martha. "I told her to wait until tonight so she's not cooking in this heat, but she wants to get as much done before tonight as she can."

Kate turned to Rick, only to find he'd gone inside while she was chatting with Martha.

"Let's head in," she suggested. "Let me get you some lemonade."

 **XXXXXX**

As the day went on, everyone helped out with preparations for the next day.

Rick pulled out the grill and cleaned it, while Kate and Martha took point in the kitchen. Alexis ran between the two, running errands when needed, and taking over for Kate for a few minutes when the heat in the kitchen became too much.

Kate tried to take a nap in the afternoon, but Flash was having none of it. Was it possible for her uterus to be bruised by all this kicking? Probably not, but she certainly felt black and blue.

She had given up trying to rest and had just rejoined the others when her father reached the house.

Hugging her he asked, "You seem tired, Katie, everything all right?"

"Flash has been using my ribs as a xylophone, but other than that…" she joked.

Jim laughed.

"This is what is known as karma, Katie."

"What do you…?" she caught on. "Really? I kicked Mom this bad?"

"Oh, you were our little karate champion."

Suddenly both were struck by the fact that they were reminiscing about Johanna and there was no melancholy. This baby boy seemed to be healing old pain as well as bringing joy to their lives.

"Come on, Dad, let's put you to work. I think Rick wants some help with setting up the table outside."

 **XXXXXX**

"Oh, no! Will you still be able to come?"

Rick walked into the bedroom to hear Kate on the phone.

"Who is it?" he mouthed, but she waved him away, listening to whoever it was.

"So it's just a consult? Well, that's good. Are you still coming up with Javi?"

 _"_ _Ah,"_ Rick thought. _"So it's Lanie."_

Kate was still talking.

"No? I guess that makes sense, if this consult takes longer than you think it will. Uh-huh, right. Soon as you can? Great. We'll see you tomorrow afternoon then. Okay. 'Bye."

She hung up.

"Lanie will be later than expected?" Rick asked.

"Yes. Perlmutter called her in to ask her opinion on one of his cases," Kate answered. "She said it shouldn't take too long, though. Javi decided to come up earlier. Even though he's not on call on the holiday, Lanie thinks he wanted to make sure he wouldn't be able to get called in."

"Smart man," Rick smirked.

He took off his t-shirt and asked, "Are you finished in the bathroom?"

"Actually, no," she replied, moving toward him. "I wanted a quick shower, if you'd care to join me?"

"Always.""

 **XXXXXX**

The morning of July 4th was hot and sticky. Kate was miserable from the moment she woke up. She had to keep reminding herself that she still had two months to go, and it would not be a good idea to head to the hospital and demand to be put into labor.

"I am officially _tired_ of being pregnant!" she exclaimed.

"Go for a swim, Katherine," Martha insisted. "It will help enormously, trust me."

"But the preparations….?" Kate hedged, though a swim sounded wonderful.

"Are being taken care of, Kate," Alexis jumped in. "Go. There's not much left to do before Esposito and Lanie get here, anyway."

Well, if they're going to force the issue…

Kate hadn't bought a new swimsuit for this trip, figuring she wouldn't be able to find anything now that she was getting so big. But now she wished she'd at least gone looking. Skinny dipping was not an option, though if she and Castle were alone, it would be a different story. Too bad she'd been so done-in when they first arrived.

Oh, well.

Kate had a couple of suits from last summer that she had left here. A one piece and a bikini. She wasn't sure about the bikini, so she tried the one piece.

Well, crap.

So much for spandex. There was no way this thing was going to stretch to halfway up her stomach, let alone completely cover her.

The bikini it was then.

She was able to get it on, though her breasts were overflowing the skimpy top. How had she not noticed how much bigger her boobs were? She knew they were, of course, she'd had to buy new bras, but wow.

Looking around for something she could use as a cover, she grabbed one of Rick's button down's. Fortunately it still buttoned over her stomach, but only just.

Grabbing a towel, she hurried as best she could down the stairs. She was full on waddling now, much to Castle's glee, and she couldn't move as quickly as she would like.

Moving out to the patio, she made her way to the swimming pool.

Walking down the steps into the water, she was struck by how good the water felt. The pool was usually heated, but no one had flipped the switch to turn on the heat, and Kate was grateful for it. The cool water was just what she needed.

Moving deeper in she felt lighter than she had for months. The water supported the weight of her belly and almost made her feel like she was floating, though her feet were firmly on the bottom of the pool. She stood like that for a moment, just enjoying the coolness of the water, before kicking off and swimming.

She swam a few laps, then heard someone joining her in the pool.

Stopping, she turned and saw Rick swimming toward her.

"Too bad we didn't think of this two days ago," he mentioned when he reached her.

"I thought of that too," she told him, putting her arms around his neck and kissing him. "But I'm glad your mom suggested it."

"Javier's here. He's unpacking and resting up from the trip. He told me not to bother you."

Kate gave him a mischievous grin.

"And yet, here you are."

Rick tried to pull away but Kate tightened her grip.

"You don't seem to want me to stop bothering you," he growled.

"Not a chance," she reached to kiss him again.

"Lanie also called, she's not too far behind Espo. The consultation with Perlmutter went faster than expected."

"Oh, good. A couple more laps and then we go get ready?"

"Works for me."

 **XXXXXX**

A few hours later, the food was finished and they sat in lawn chairs set up overlooking the water. From this vantage point they could see several of the fireworks shows going on in the area.

Kate had Rick bring out a straight backed chair from the dining room for her to sit on. It wasn't exactly comfortable, though Rick also brought a pillow, but Kate knew she'd never be able to get up from a lawn chair.

It was all good, though, and they sat and enjoyed the show. Kate had a bad moment when her PTSD flared with the explosions, but Rick put a hand around her ankle, grounding her and giving her something to concentrate on to ease the panic. She relaxed and made it through without falling again.

When the show ended, they all helped clean up the detritus from the barbecue. Everyone was leaving in the morning and both Rick and Kate wanted to leave as little mess as possible. They did try to discourage Lanie and Espo from cleaning up, ("You guys are guests!") but were promptly told to 'stop being idiots and pass me those dirty plates.'

Getting ready for bed, Rick said; "I missed Kevin and Jenny and the kids today."

"I did too," agreed Kate. "But there's always next year." Turning to him she continued. "I guess we'll be in their shoes in a couple of months."

He smiled and rubbed a hand across her belly.

"Yes, and I'm getting excited."

She smiled back but then a pensive expression came over her face.

"You've been through this. Will you talk me through the panic I'm sure to have when it comes to the baby?"

"Of course. And even if I hadn't, I'd still talk you through it."

"Okay," she breathed. "We can do it right?"

Rick kissed her softly.

"We can do anything."

 **XXXXXX**

 _A/N: Thoughts?_


	9. Chapter 9 - August

_A/N: Wow! 126 followers on this story! Thanks to each and every one of you for your support! It means so much to me and I really am amazed. I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations! :) See the end of the chapter for more notes._

 **XXXXXX**

Castle was being insufferable.

Wait. That wasn't fair. It was the August heat that was insufferable. Not Castle.

But, yeah. Castle was being insufferable too.

Kate had prevaricated between the two feelings – whether he was or not – for the past three days.

He was being sweet, he really was, but she was irritable. The weather had been so hot that she just couldn't. Whatever it was he did, or said, or wanted, just…no.

Kate sighed.

Maybe she was just being stubborn.

Rick had wanted to take one last short trip before the baby came, maybe the Hamptons again, maybe the cabin. Someplace to completely relax in preparation for the hectic time ahead.

She'd shot him down at every suggestion.

Her reaction made sense in a way, the house in the Hamptons was too far away and the cabin had no pool. Ever since Martha had turned her on to swimming last July, she'd found a maternity suit and had started going to a pool at least three times a week.

She was due in two and a half weeks, and she knew she'd probably take a strip out of Rick's hide every day until she popped.

Poor Castle. He didn't deserve this, nor did Kate deserve his understanding – at least she didn't think so.

But that didn't change the way she felt.

She was just _so_ tired. And she got cranky when she was tired. The Braxton – Hicks contractions every other day didn't help either.

Things had culminated with an argument this morning.

It had started out as an innocuous conversation. She and Rick had been discussing names, not really agreeing on anything except the middle name – which had been set in stone for two months. They knew they were cutting to the wire on the first name, but the good natured arguing about it was kind of fun.

It had gone downhill from there, and Kate wasn't quite sure why. Part of it was Rick's suggestion that she begin her maternity leave early.

"You're due in a couple of weeks," he had said. "So it really isn't _that_ early."

"You know I want to work right up to my due date, Castle," she snapped.

Things had devolved after that, and she felt like it was all her fault.

She loved Rick and Flash more than anything in the world. It wasn't just that she wanted to keep working for two more weeks, she was determined to not be one of those women who had their labor started when it was convenient. But this last month – the last few days – tempted her to do that to no end – if only to start her maternity leave early. It wouldn't count as leaving early if she actually went into labor, right?

But she wasn't sure how to tell him she was ready to go on leave _now_. Not after all her 'lectures' – as Castle teasingly called them – about 'sticking with it, I'm not sick so quitting early would be just that…quitting'.

She knew he was right, and that was half the problem. So she stormed out of the loft refusing to acknowledge his point.

Maybe it wasn't Castle who was being insufferable. Maybe it was her.

Kate sighed again, leaning back in the water.

She was in the precinct's pool, not actually swimming, but floating along, weightless. She needed this relaxation.

The entire day had been bad.

A half hour after she had arrived at the precinct, a suspect made a crude remark about her being knocked up and how he found 'bred' women _hot_ and how sorry he was that he hadn't been the one doing the breeding.

She had decided to not tell Castle about that one. She really didn't want to have to arrest him for assault in the precinct, even though the scumbag deserved to be pummeled. Ryan and Espo didn't rough him up, exactly, but they didn't treat him with kid gloves either. Even the guy's lawyer was disgusted.

Her concern was moot, thought. Rick hadn't come in bringing lunch as he usually did, he didn't even call, just a quick text that he'd be at his PI office today, catching up on paperwork.

He must really angry if he was willingly doing paperwork, and not coercing Alexis to do it.

Kate sighed a third time and rolled over in the water to swim.

It was time to haul herself out of the pool and go home. She needed to apologize to Rick and tell him that she'd decided to compromise.

She had an appointment to speak to her superior, Deputy Inspector Frank Larson tomorrow morning and make arrangements to begin maternity leave next week. Her last day would be Saturday if it all worked out, and she didn't think there would be a problem. It wasn't as if the entire precinct didn't know she was ready to explode, hell, they'd probably breathe a collective sigh of relief when she was gone. She certainly would. It was time to go.

 **XXXXXX**

Kate texted Castle that she was on her way, and he replied he was still at his office, but would be home within a couple of hours.

Kate frowned at the text. She really needed to talk to him; to make things right between them. But maybe this could work to her advantage.

She could get home, have a quick shower to freshen up – she had showered after her swim, but it was hot enough that even if she hadn't been pregnant she'd want to do it again when she got to the loft.

And then she would make dinner. Something fast, easy and cool. No cooking required. Subs maybe? She was hungry enough. She'd see what they had in the fridge.

And during all that…think of what to say to him.

Kate had never had the gift of words that Rick had. She was getting better at it – Castle had helped enormously with that – but when it came right down to it, she felt tongue tied when it counted. And it counted now. She didn't want to be in the midst of a real fight when Flash decided it was time to make his entrance.

Waddling into the loft, (Kate could not _wait_ until she got back to her usual stride) she made her way to the bathroom. Looking with longing at the bathtub, she reached for the knobs in the shower. She didn't want to take too long, and she'd never get out of the tub without help. In fact, now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure she'd be able to get _into_ it without Rick there to watch out for her.

 _Without Rick there to watch out for her…_

No. No, she was not going there. It wouldn't happen. Especially caused by what was ultimately an incredibly stupid argument. They'd been through worse, and they were still here, they'll get through this. And they'll get through it in two weeks.

Bloody hormones.

Kate quickly undressed and stepped under the spray, closing her eyes.

 **XXXXXX**

The best laid plans…

Less than five minutes after getting into the shower, Kate heard the door of the stall open and close.

Strong arms snaked around her and large hands rubbed over her belly.

Leaning back into Rick's chest Kate murmured.

"You're home earlier than I expected."

"Is that a problem?" he teased.

She turned and put her arms around his neck.

"Not even a little bit," she smiled then bit her lip. "I'm sorry, Castle."

"Sorry for what? For being eight and a half months pregnant? In late August? Kate, I'm not angry."

"Why not?" she moaned. "I deserve it." She looked up at him, puzzled.

"You had to have been really mad, you were doing paperwork."

That made Rick laugh.

"I _was_ frustrated, Kate," he grabbed the soap and a washcloth. "You're under a lot of stress at work, pregnant or not, and I just wanted to try to take some of that away."

"And I acted like a total bitch," she stated unhappily. "And I'm sorry."

He kissed her.

"I love you, Kate. Hormones and all. Now, I've thought of a new name. I think it's a really good one and it fits well with his middle name."

Kate was all ears.

 **XXXXXX**

Deputy Inspector Larson was a little incredulous.

"You're only asking now?"

Kate bristled a little.

"Yes, Sir. I had wanted to work up to my due date, but…"

"My youngest daughter was born in September," he interrupted. "Her birthday is next couple of weeks, in fact. Anyway, my wife was like you – wanted to work the whole way through. She gave in at the beginning of August…of course, we were living in Phoenix at the time…

Kate smiled and Larson went on.

"So, forgive me, Captain Beckett, for being a little surprised. My poor wife was miserable, and it's been a hot summer this year."

"It hasn't been exactly rainbows for me either, Sir. I mean, most of it has been, but not this last month. And I've kind of been taking it out on my husband."

"Ouch," he grinned. "Your replacement is all set up?"

Kate nodded.

"Well, then, tell you what. Out of deference to your husband, I think you should clear your desk of what you can today, and start leave tomorrow."

Kate's mouth fell open.

"I – Sir- I – I can finish the week, Sir."

He shrugged.

"I'm sure you can, and if that's what you really want, fine. But from what you've told me, it sounds like you're ready now. Take it, Kate."

"Can I think about it, Sir?"

"Sure. Just let me know before you leave tonight. I'll be here until 6:00."

"Thank you Sir," Kate stood and shook his hand. "Wish your daughter a happy birthday for me."

The Deputy Inspector beamed.

"Will do."

 **XXXXXX**

Kate thought about it.

It was all she could think about. Ryan and Esposito noticed her distraction when they had to repeat their updates for her three times.

Her pen was poised motionless above a report when Lanie walked into the office.

"What is going on, Kate?" Lanie launched right into it, breaking Kate out of her thoughts.

Kate had forgotten whether she was supposed to add anything to the report or just sign off on it, so she put her pen down.

"What? Did the boys call you or something?"

"What do you think?"

"Figures. Mother hens, the both of them. I'm all right, Lanie. I just have a lot on my mind."

"Girl, you just need to go on leave already." Lanie told her. "And don't roll your eyes at me, _Captain_ ," she continued when Kate did exactly that. "I'm a doctor, and you should listen to me."

"I thought working on the living wasn't your thing," Kate smirked.

"Katherine H. Beckett if I told you – as a doctor and a friend – to pack up right now, would you?"

"No, I wouldn't," she held up a hand to stop Lanie from going on with her rant. "I'll explain later. Right now, I'm going to lunch with my husband."

She stood and Lanie whirled around to find Castle standing in the office doorway.

"You need to talk some sense into your wife, Writer Boy," Lanie hurled at him, stalking out of the office and over to Ryan's desk to 'consult' with the boys.

"I'll do my best," replied Rick, before turning back to his wife's glare.

"Oh, come on, seriously?" he asked, taking in her look. "I'm not going to get on Lanie's bad side. She has scalpels!"

"And I have a gun, Castle," Kate smirked. "Which is worse?"

"Yeah, but you love me…"

Kate's not very convincing glare softened.

"That I do," she replied softly, reaching up to kiss him. "Come on, Flash is hungry for Remy's."

 **XXXXXX**

Over cheeseburgers, Kate apologized to Rick again.

"I shouldn't bite your head off every time you make a reasonable suggestion," she explained when he tried to minimize her behavior.

She then went on, telling him about her meeting with Frank Larson, and his suggestion that she begin her leave tomorrow, instead of the end of the week as she was planning.

"I mean, you were right, Castle," she conceded. "I was just too stubborn to see it. I've known women who do work right up to their due date, and past it, if they haven't gone into labor yet. I guess I just felt…I don't know…less than."

"Kate, there's no shame in listening to what your body is telling you. Those other women did it? Well, bully for them. So what? They're not you, and you're not them. And that's okay."

Rick picked up her hand and rubbed circles on the back of it.

"Everyone who knows you is very much aware how badass you are," he went on with a grin. "The summer's heat doesn't negate that."

Kate gave him a watery smile. Yet another reason for Flash to hurry up and get here. She hated being this weepy over everything.

"So, you think I should start maternity leave now? Well, tomorrow?" she asked him.

"If you're asking my opinion, Kate, the answer is yes, you should." Rick agreed. "If you think you can do the week, that's up to you. But remember – your friends, family, even your boss thinks you're ready to go now. And I'll bet if you asked Flash, he'd say the same thing."

"You know, using Flash against me is a dirty trick," Kate remarked, taking a sip of her strawberry milkshake.

"If it works, Kate."

She didn't tell him then, but she thought it might have.

 **XXXXXX**

Kate stepped out of her office. Moving toward the center of the bullpen, she called for everyone's attention.

"As is obvious, I am getting really close to having this kid."

Soft chuckles filled the room.

I am also aware that I've been a bit snippy this last month in particular – "

More chuckles.

" – And distracted, especially today." She paused, looking at each face in turn. "I've spoken with Deputy Inspector Larson and have decided that today is my last day. I will begin my maternity leave tomorrow."

She gave a teasing glare.

"No cheering."

Everyone laughed aloud.

"I've also notified Captain David Emerson who will take my place for the 4 months I'll be off. I may peek in from time to time just to see how things are going…and _maybe_ show off my baby."

This time there were cheers.

Kate went on.

"So this is it," she spread her arms wide. "Castle will be here to pick me up in a few minutes. I will be back, so make me proud."

Everyone broke into applause and several people came up to give Kate a hug goodbye. Kate noticed Esposito with his phone out, beginning to text someone.

"That had better not be Lanie you're texting, Espo," she said sardonically. "I'll call her myself."

Esposito had the good grace to blush a little.

Kate grinned and pulled him in for a quick hug.

"Thanks for caring."

"Anytime and all the time, Boss."

Castle came in then and took Kate's hand, surprising her.

"Let's get this show on the road," he smiled at her.

"Sounds like a plan," she answered him, smiling back.

After Kate had gathered her things and they were walking to the elevator, Rick remarked, "You're more relaxed already, I can tell."

"I feel more relaxed," she laughed. "You were right."

He grinned.

"Thanks, Rick, for putting up with me. Especially the last couple of months."

The grin deepened into a loving smile.

"Always."

 **XXXXXX**

 _A/N2: There is no US holiday in August, but since this is a_ _ **year**_ _long story, I wanted to do the month. I was originally going to have them go on vacation, but it just didn't work, so I scrapped it, and started on the Labor Day chapter. Then that got long, and the first part was taking away from where I wanted to go with the holiday, so I split it and put the August chapter back in. I'm glad I did it that way, and I'm hoping it will make the next chapter better._

 _I'd really love to hear what you think!_

 _K_


	10. Chapter 10 - Labor Day

_A/N: Happy Labor Day! :) This chapter is for #CastleFanficMonday. I hope you enjoy!_

 **XXXXXX**

Kate woke up on Labor Day morning feeling weird. The truth was, she'd been feeling weird for the last few days, and it wasn't just the heat. The day after her leave started, she got up breathing easier than she had been for the entire third trimester. Martha told her the baby had dropped.

Wonderful. Really, it was. Being able to breathe easier made her feel lighter somehow, though she thought that was ridiculous. The baby was still in there, after all, and she still felt like she was as big as a house. Unfortunately, ever since, Flash had been pressing on her bladder, and that was not so wonderful.

Rushing as best she could to the bathroom, she had a thought that slowed her progress for a moment.

T minus one week.

A tiny squirmy stranger would be moving in, demanding food and clothing in a completely foreign language.

She rubbed her belly.

"Go easy on Mommy, will ya baby?"

She smiled and thought back to her doctor appointment last Friday.

 _"_ _Well, you're about 90% effaced, Kate," the doctor looked up from her exam with a smile. "I'd say your new baby will introduce himself sooner rather than later."_

 _Kate beamed at the doctor, but then a frown darkened her face._

 _"_ _This is probably a stupid question, but I'm due the 12_ _th_ _. If I go into labor early…" she trailed off._

 _"_ _It's not a stupid question, Kate, and one that's been asked many times by first time mothers. The 'due date' is really just a guesstimate. Full term can be two weeks before and some women don't go into labor until two weeks after. Most women don't actually deliver on their due date."_

 _"_ _Two weeks after?" Kate said in a half panic._

 _The doctor laughed._

 _"_ _Relax Kate," she reassured. "With where you're at now, I don't think you'll have to worry about that. And you'll be induced if it gets too far past."_

 _Kate nodded, calming down a little._

Kate shook her head at the memory. She was still wary about the baby coming a little early, even if just a week, but she had taken what the doctor said as a mantra: _It's just a guesstimate, most women_ _ **don't**_ _deliver on their due date._

Okay, she could do this. She wasn't in labor yet.

Flash nudged her. It felt like he was stretching out, pressing on her uterus, trying to get out.

"I hear you, Sweetheart. I may be nervous, but I'm ready for you to come out too."

 **XXXXXX**

Rick and Kate were having a TV series marathon today. Kate had no idea what this had to do with Labor Day, but Rick said he and Alexis had been doing it for years.

"I'm not sure exactly where it came from," he admitted. "It might have been that we were all picnicked out, and just wanted a three day weekend to stay in."

"Well, I'm not going to complain about staying inside an air-conditioned loft," she replied as another nudge from Flash came and went. It was odd, but not painful – she'd had Braxton – Hicks that hurt worse – so she didn't think too much about it.

"Where is Alexis, anyway?" she asked.

"Mother asked her to stay and run lines with her. She has that new play coming up, remember?"

"Oh, that's right. So, what show did you pick?"

Kate made her way over to the couch with a bowl of popcorn in one hand and a bowl of potato chips in the other.

"Classic sitcom," he held up the DVD's. " _'I Love Lucy'_ season 2."

"Why season 2? Why not start from the beginning?"

"Little Ricky is born this season."

Kate smiled.

"Giving Flash hints?" she asked, going back to the kitchen for the dip and a pitcher of lemonade.

"Couldn't hurt.." He put the disc in the player and turned to Kate. "Do you want to watch specific episodes, or just start from the beginning?"

Kate thought a minute.

"Let's just watch the pregnancy episodes."

Rick grinned from ear to ear.

I like the way you think!"

 **XXXXXX**

Four hours, twice that many bathroom breaks, and six nudges later, Kate finally realized there was something more going on. The nudges, while still not exactly painful, were getting stronger and lasting longer.

She had decided to time them when the fifth one came along. It lasted 30 seconds, then eased. The sixth had come 40 minutes later, and lasted 45 seconds.

She still hadn't mentioned anything to Rick since they weren't painful, just pressure. But it was time to tell him now. They might have been Braxton – Hicks again, but changing position and drinking water hadn't stopped them.

This could be the real thing.

It was 30 minutes after the last nudge and Kate was standing at the bathroom sink washing her hands.

Suddenly there was a huge wave of pain and Kate doubled over.

"Oh, God – " she put her hands on her thighs and tried to breathe through the pain, using techniques she had learned after she had been shot.

The pain seemed to go on forever and when it finally eased, Kate stood straight and looked at herself in the mirror, breathing hard.

That was no 'nudge'.

"Wow." Kate took another deep breath and walked back to the living room. In the office she thought of something that stopped her in her tracks in the middle of the room.

"Labor Day, Flash? Really?" She rolled her eyes. "You're definitely your father's son."

She watched Rick for a moment through the bookshelves, sitting in the couch perusing his iPad.

He looked calm and Kate smiled, knowing that calmness wasn't going to last much longer.

Taking her cue from the _'I Love Lucy'_ episode they had just watched, Kate stepped into the room.

"Ricky, this is it…".

He looked up.

"Ha ha. Very funny. Perfect way to tell me though, when the time does come."

"I'm serious, Castle," she placed his hand on her belly. "I've been having contractions throughout the marathon, and I had a doozy just now in the bathroom."

Rick dropped the iPad and scrambled to sit up.

"Seriously? Why didn't you say something before?"

"It was just pressure, no pain – until just now," she replied.

"How far apart?"

"When I started paying more attention it was about 40 minutes. The painful one was a half hour after the last one that was just pressure. They seem to be getting closer together."

"Have you been timing them?"

While he was grilling Kate, Rick was up and moving through the loft. He was calmer than Kate was expecting, certainly calmer than she felt. She was grateful for that, somebody needed to be and she didn't think it was going to be her.

"About 30 to 45 seconds. Though I don't know how long the last one was. It hurt too much."

Rick went into the bedroom and pulled Kate's suitcase out of the closet. It had been packed and ready to go for a week. Kate had thought that was ridiculous at the time, but she was now happy about it.

"Are we heading for the hospital now?" she asked, feeling stupid for asking now. Why hadn't she asked Martha earlier about when they should go? Or Lanie? Or Jenny? Or friggin' Googled it?

On the one hand – the nervous, panicky first time mother hand – she wanted to go right now. But on the more rational 'let's think this through' hand, maybe they didn't need to rush _._

 _'_ _The contractions are 30 to 40 minutes apart, so maybe you should relax as best you can, Kate, and Google the info you need.'_

Okay, yeah. Listen to the rational side.

"Not yet," Rick answered. I'm thinking maybe when they're 10 minutes apart?"

Kate nodded.

"All right. Umm…what do we do now?"

Rick laughed.

"Sit back and wait. Your body knows what to do"

"Okay," she breathed, sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter.

She pulled her laptop over and began Googling.

"Hey, Babe? This says we should wait until the pains are 5 minutes apart before we leave," she glanced up to see him pop a grape into his mouth.

"Traffic," he mumbled around the fruit. Swallowing, he continued. "I'll call the car service when the contractions are at around 15 minutes." He sat on the stool next to her. "Hey, I don't want to deliver this little guy in the back of a taxi with the only help coming from the cabbie."

"I'll second th – ," a wave of pain overtook her.

Rick looked at his watch and began timing as Kate breathed through the pain once again.

"Whew," gasped Kate as the contraction subsided. "How long?"

"You're at 47 seconds," he replied, marking the time the pains began. "Still a half hour in between would you say?"

Kate looked at the wall clock.

"No, the last one was about 20 minutes ago. Things are moving along, Castle."

Kate would have sworn that the smile spreading across Rick's face was the biggest she'd seen since she'd told him she was pregnant in the first place. His enthusiasm fed hers – easing her nervousness a little and ramping up her own excitement. She was going to hold her son in her arms today. Her own smile expanded until it matched his; the love and amazement written in their eyes obvious for any onlooker to see.

 **XXXXXX**

Things sped up quickly after that. The next contraction was 15 minutes later, and Rick called the car service.

The next pain was still in the 15 minute range, but they decided to leave for the hospital anyway, figuring the holiday traffic would slow them down on the way there, and even if they had to sit in the waiting room for awhile, at least they were at the hospital when things came to a head.

It was good that they left when they did. Traffic was horrible. It seemed like there was an accident on every street they took. It was beginning to piss Kate off.

"What the hell!" she exclaimed, as another even stronger contraction finally ended. "Did everyone suddenly forget how to drive?"

By the time they reached the hospital the contractions were 5 minutes apart and a minute long. When they pulled up, Kate was in the middle of another and couldn't move. The driver went inside to ask for a wheelchair, since Rick wouldn't leave Kate's side.

The nurse followed the driver back out to the car with the wheelchair and began asking Kate questions as she helped her out of the back seat.

"How long between contractions? How long are the contractions? Do you know how effaced you are? What about dilation?"

Once Kate had been admitted and moved into a birthing room, Rick realized he hadn't called anyone.

"I need to make some phone calls. Mother, Alexis, Jim. Do you want me to call Lanie, Ryan and Esposito?"

"The doctor would be nice," she joked. "But um…no, just family right now. Maybe Lanie? And she could call the boys? I'd like to call them, but I don't want to be seen as playing favorites at the precinct."

"Would people do that? Everyone knows those two were your partners for years before you made Captain."

Another 'nudge', the strongest so far.

When it ended, Kate replied to Rick's question.

"There's always that one brownnoser," she gritted out. "Politics is a bitch."

The nurse came in then, along with an anesthesiologist. "You ready for an epidural?"

"Yes, please!" exclaimed Kate, turning her head to see Castle turn green.

"What's the matter, Castle? The big bad needle getting to you?" she teased.

"As a matter of fact, yes," he replied, looking more than a little queasy. "I'll just…go make those calls. I'll be back in 10 minutes. Don't have the baby without me!" He rushed out of the room, feeling Kate's smirk on his back.

True to his word, 10 minutes later, he came back. Kate was feeling no pain, but monitors around her kept track of the contractions.

"Dr. Hogan is on her way," he told Kate. "As is everybody else. Alexis in particular is thrilled that you're in labor today, since there're no classes and she can be here."

His eyes twinkled with glee.

"Labor Day, Kate! I can't tell you how _awesome_ this is!"

"I'm honestly surprised you didn't mention it earlier," she told him. "This is definitely your kid, Castle."

Rick just beamed.

 **XXXXXX**

When the doctor arrived, Rick stepped out again as she did her exam. He didn't have to leave, but he did want to see if the family had arrived so he went to check in the waiting room.

They had.

Jim, Martha, Alexis, Lanie and Jenny were all there. Jenny was a surprise, but Lanie explained.

"Javi and Kevin were at the morgue when you called me, so I told them about Kate. Kevin then called Jenny and asked her to come in and keep them posted."

"Is that all right, Rick?" asked Jenny. "I don't want to overstep…"

"That's perfect, Jenny," he answered. "I know Kate will be happy you're here."

He turned to Alexis, Martha and Jim.

"Kate wanted me to ask if any of you wanted to watch Flash being born? It's all right if you don't, but the offer's open." He glanced at his watch. "I need to get back in there, so if any or all of you want to come…?"

Jim stepped back.

"I, um…no, that would be too strange for me. And I don't want to see my little girl in pain like that, even though I'm getting a grandson out of it."

"Fair enough, Jim." Rick nodded and turned.

"Mother, Alexis?"

"I think I'll stay and keep Jim company," replied Martha. "I really wouldn't be comfortable."

"And that's fine, Mother."

Alexis stood for a moment, biting her lip. Rick wondered if she had picked the habit up from Kate.

"Alexis?"

"Would it really be all right?" she asked.

"Kate wouldn't have asked me to ask if it wasn't."

Alexis looked at the floor, and then nodded decisively.

"Yes, I'd like to come. I'd like to see my baby brother being born."

Rick lit up like a beacon.

"Let's go!"

 **XXXXXX**

Three and a half hours later, a wail arose in the hubbub of the room. The tiny cry increased in volume as Rick – who was in tears – cut the cord.

Kate – who was also bawling – watched with an enormous smile as the cord was tied off and Rick took the scissors from the doctor.

Alexis – yep, tears for her too – held her telephone up, taking pictures of the scene as she had been doing the entire time. She had sworn up and down to Kate that they would only be shown to people Kate approved of.

"It's just for us, really," she had said. "Maybe Lanie, but no one else."

Alexis watched as her brother was cleaned up a little, wrapped in a blanket and placed in his mother's arms. She felt a little like an outsider as her father kissed Kate and whispered in her ear.

"Alexis?"

It startled her, to hear Kate say her name. She quickly moved to Kate's side.

"Would you like to hold your baby brother?"

Alexis nodded, unable to speak.

Rick stood and took the baby from Kate. He moved around to the other side of the bed, placing the tiny boy in Alexis' arms.

"Alexis, I'd like you to meet Eric James Castle. Eric, meet your big sister, Alexis."

Alexis almost couldn't see him, but blinked back the tears, a few spilling over anyway.

"He's beautiful, Kate. And perfect." She looked at her father and laughed a little. "I can't believe I'm a big sister. I have a brother."

She continued to hold Eric as the nurse cleaned Kate up, and Rick took a few close-ups of the baby.

Rick went out to the waiting room to tell the others the news, and bring them back.

"Just one or two at a time, Rick," Kate begged. "Please?"

"Of course, Kate."

"I'll go too," jumped in Alexis. "I mean, I don't want to give up holding him…"

Kate smiled.

"…but everyone should be able to come in. I shouldn't hog all the time."

"Thanks for being here, Alexis," Kate said, as she placed her brother in Kate's arms. Giving her a gentle squeeze Alexis backed away, leaving the room with her dad.

 **XXXXXX**

In the waiting room everyone clamored to hear the news as Rick and Alexis walked in.

"He's healthy and strong," announced Rick. "7 pounds 3 ounces of brand new Castle baby."

The smiles around the room outshone the sun.

"He's beautiful," Alexis broke in. "I can't believe how perfect he is."

"Jim, Mother. Would you like to go back now?" asked Rick.

Jim nodded, unable to speak, and Martha spoke up.

"Jim why don't you go back alone? Have a few minutes alone with your daughter and grandson."

"Yes, I'd like that," Jim returned, his voice cracking. Thank you, Martha."

Rick showed Jim the way to the room, before coming back with his phone out, showing the others the pictures of his brand new son.

 **XXXXXX**

Jim knocked on the doorframe as he peeked into Kate's room.

"Dad! Come on in! I have someone for you to meet." Kate scooted up the bed as best she could while holding her baby.

Jim slowly walked to Kate's side, staring at the squirming little bundle in her arms.

Noticing the look on his face, Kate asked; "What, Dad? What is it?"

"I was thinking back to yesterday," he smiled. "When it was your mother in a bed like this, holding you."

Fresh tears stained Kate's cheeks.

"He's already got a guardian angel, Dad."

"Yes, he does. He's beautiful, Katie. What have you decided to name him?"

"His name is Eric James Castle, Dad."

Tears seemed to be contagious – it was Jim's turn.

"James for the middle name, huh?"

Kate smiled at him. It was a beautiful sight to see her father holding her son.

"Yeah, we've known his middle name for a few months. It was the first name we had trouble with. Rick was the one who thought of Eric."

"It's a good choice," Jim mused. "Both names fit well together."

Rick came back in the room.

"Well," Jim said. "I had better get going. Let you get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow, Katie."

"Sounds good, Dad."

She watched as Rick took the baby from Jim's arms.

Jim kissed Eric's forehead, then leaned to do the same to Kate.

"See you later."

"Bye, Dad."

Rick turned back to Kate after Jim left.

"The others have gone too," he told her. "Give you time to rest, and us time to get to know this little guy."

He leaned to kiss Kate and then his son.

"Happy birthday, Eric. Welcome to the world."

 **XXXXXX**

 _A/N 2: I know going into labor on Labor Day is a little cliché and cheesy, but it worked for me as as I hope it worked for you. I'd love to hear what you think! :)_


	11. Chapter 11 - Halloween

_A/N: Castle's back! That was such a great episode last night! Can't wait for next week! I didn't make the 30,000 words for the full ficathon, but I did manage to make the mini, which is what I was going for, so yay me!. :) This story isn't finished, there's still 3 more chapters to go. This chapter got a little "Star Trek-y in places, I hope that's okay. :) I hope you enjoy this one. Happy Halloween all!_

 **XXXXXX**

Eric was four weeks old today and Kate was feeling overwhelmed.

No time to eat, very little – if any – sleep, she felt like she was being pulled in about 47 different directions at 47 different speeds.

Who would have thought such a tiny little boy would be such a taskmaster?

Rick was a lifesaver, tag teaming with her when she just needed 30 seconds to herself in order to regroup.

"I don't know how you did this alone with Alexis," she marveled.

"Well, to be fair, Meredith was around and engaged at this point," he replied. "Well, engaged to a certain extent. Alexis was very much a baby doll, to be cuddled and dressed up and played with. I got the messy parts."

"Diapers?"

"Diapers, spit up, anything 'gross'. After a few months, though…While I would never – _ever_ say she 'lost interest' in Alexis, it seemed that other things became more important." He paused and looked up at her with shadowed eyes. "Even before the affair."

They were sitting on the bed, Kate folding baby socks (why the hell did they get so many different colors and patterns?) with Rick helping her while he was also surfing the web. Eric was asleep, but Kate knew he'd wake soon.

She scooted closer to her husband.

"You know you're stuck with me, right?"

His eyes crinkled as he smiled.

"Like superglue."

They went back to the socks, although Rick was increasingly distracted by whatever he was looking up on his laptop.

" _What_ are you looking at?"

"Halloween costumes for the three of us. Alexis too if she wants one."

"I am not going to be a slutty nurse, Castle."

"I wouldn't ask that with Eric, I want to go out with him. You know I only suggested that to get a rise out of you anyway," he smirked. "Not that I wouldn't have enjoyed it at the time – and for a private party, I still would."

Kate shot him a glare.

I'd only wear something like that on one condition."

"What's that?"

"I'd get to wear my Creaver mask with it."

Rick looked at her, horrified.

"No slutty nurse then. Ever."

She grinned.

"Good plan."

They were silent for a few minutes as Kate finished up with the socks and Rick continued to surf.

"So what did you have in mind?" she asked.

"Hmmm?"

"The costumes, Castle. What are you thinking?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"You want some help?"

"Would you mind if I said no? I want it to be a surprise."

She eyed him warily.

"Trust me?"

Eric began to wail and Kate rolled off the bed to get him.

"Well, since one of them is going to be for Eric, I'll trust you."

 **XXXXXX**

A couple of weeks later, Castle burst into the loft holding a fairly large, flattish box.

"It came! It came! It came!" he burst out, rushing over to the couch where Kate was nursing Eric.

Smiling at Rick's enthusiasm, Kate lifted Eric from her breast, and turned him so he could latch onto the other.

"What came?"

"Halloween costumes, of course!"

Kate laughed, a hearty yet soft sound that always made Rick stop and marvel that she thought he was good enough for her.

"Of course," she humored him. "What else could it have been?"

He gave her a mock glare, then his grin came back and he plopped down next to her.

"You are going to love this, my little sci-fi geek."

"You got Eric a Captain Max uniform?"

She lifted Eric to her shoulder to burp him and laughed again at the look of utter offense on Rick's face.

"Open it up, Babe."

Looking much like how Kate imagined Eric would in three years time, Rick tore open the packing tape and lifted the top of the box.

"You know I have better taste than that," he teased.

She whacked him lightly and he grinned.

He opened the box and pulled out Eric's costume.

Kate gasped softly.

It was a Starfleet uniform. Specifically a Captain's uniform.

"Oh, my goodness, Rick!" she exclaimed. "It's baby Q!

"I know, right?" Rick bounced on the couch. "Should we try it on him? Make sure it fits?"

Kate's enthusiasm was beginning to match her husband's, but then she wrinkled her nose and Eric let out a squawk.

"Not yet," she smirked, as she got up and headed for the bathroom. I'll get his diaper changed and then we can."

"I'm glad it came early so we can exchange it if it doesn't fit," he called after her as he placed the uniform on his own chest as if to see if it might fit him.

Kate came back a few minutes later with Eric dressed in only his diaper.

"You know, Rick we'll make this work even if it's way too big." She paused a minute, thinking. Then she grinned. "And I'll just bet that you 'know a guy' if it's too small."

She sat on the floor and placed Eric beside her, blowing a raspberry on his tummy to make him squeal.

Rick handed her the costume and she took a minute to unzip and unsnap everything.

Eric was enjoying not having anything on but the diaper and had stuck one fist in his mouth and was waving the other around. He very nearly clocked Kate a good one when she bent to put the outfit over his head.

"Hey, baby – I know you don't like me putting your head through small holes, but you don't have to slug me!"

She glanced at Rick, who was grinning.

"You laugh now, but just wait until he gives me a bloody nose!"

"I laugh because I've been there," he defended himself. "Alexis had a hell of a left hook when she was a baby."

Eric's head popped through the top of the costume.

"There's my sweet boy," Kate beamed as her son smiled up at her. It was always the same whenever she dressed him. He would fuss and squirm, but it was ultimately a game of peek-a-boo between them.

Finally getting the rest of the wriggling little boy into the costume, Kate held him up for Rick's inspection, smiling like an idiot.

The getup _was_ a little big, but Eric was growing so fast that it might well fit when Halloween arrived in two weeks.

Castle's grin lit up his whole face. He pulled his phone out and took a picture of his wife and son – Kate's massive smile as she nuzzled her baby and Eric ignoring them both in favor of examining his fingers as they peeked out of the uniform's sleeve.

Both of them were adorable.

He texted the picture to Jim, Alexis and Martha and made a mental note to have that one printed.

"Please tell me we're going trick or treating," he pleaded. He wasn't sure she would want to take Eric out. "He'll be nearly two months old on Halloween, and we could just go around this building."

Kate laughed at his little boy antics, and his puppy dog eyes. Pressing a kiss to Eric's cheek, she said, "Of course we're going trick or treating! And we're doing this building, my dad's building and your mom's and Alexis' building."

Rick looked at his wife with awe.

"We are _so_ going to rake in the candy!"

Kate's laugh was bright and beautiful.

" _We_ are going to show off our adorable son," she retorted, then continued. "But…if we get a few candy bars out of the deal, I won't complain."

It always amazed Rick how different this Kate was from the one he had met all those years ago. Oh, he'd had glimpses – finding Angela Candela, for example – and Kate's reaction to the little girl told him right off that she'd be a wonderful mother.

But it had surprised him a little when she didn't take to Benny right off. Though now he realized the fact that Benny was a baby and Angela was a toddler made all the difference to Kate. She hadn't known babies, but probably had babysat a few toddlers as a teen. It hadn't taken her long to warm up to the little boy once she got to know him.

But it was true that she was much more open then she had been when they first met. Kate always told him that it was because of him.

She looked up at him.

"What?"

He leaned in to kiss her.

"Nothing. I just love you."

She smiled and kissed him back.

"So, what else is in the box?"

He looked at her closely.

"I had kind of a hard time deciding on your costume. You're a cop, but you're in command."

"So am I red or yellow?" she asked. "I'm assuming you got _Next Generation_ uniforms for all of us."

Rick beamed at her. Even with her incomprehensible love of _Nebula 9_ , she was a geek after his own heart.

"You are the perfect woman," he told her as he leaned forward to kiss her again.

Going back to the box, he pulled out a red uniform.

"Okay, it's not _Next Gen_ , but _Voyager_. I figured that would be a good choice since that's the series the Baby Q episode was in."

"I get to be Janeway?" Kate smiled, then she gave him a mild version of 'The Look'. "Are you Q?"

"I thought about it, but decided no, three command uniforms would be a bit much." he pulled out a yellow uniform. "I'm not Tuvok, and I didn't get ears so I'm not even a Vulcan, but I figured that since I'm a PI, I count as security."

Puppy dog eyes again. As if it mattered, it was Halloween, not Starfleet.

"Security's perfect for you, Babe." She stood to go into the bedroom to change, but then turned to him.

"I seem to remember you were thinking about getting a costume for Alexis. Did you?"

"No, she said she already had one for a party on the Saturday before." He frowned. "She also said she has a big test on November 1st so she won't be able to go trick or treating with us."

"Oh, that's too bad. I guess we should go over there first so she can get back to studying."

"That sounds good."

 **XXXXXX**

Halloween morning Kate went to the precinct. She didn't take the baby, ("Are you crazy, Castle? You know what Halloween's like!") but she did take both her phone and iPad to show off the pictures.

"So, what's Sarah Grace going to be this year?" she asked Ryan as he scrolled through the pictures.

He pulled his own phone out of his pocket to show her pictures of his kids in their costumes.

"Sarah's going as Rey and we found a leprechaun costume for Sean."

Kate grinned. They were perfect costumes.

"What time are you taking them out for trick or treating?" she asked. "We're going out around 5:00, we'd love to stop by."

"That's when I'm taking Sarah out, we should be home by 7:00 if that works."

"Perfect, we'll see you then." Kate turned to Esposito. "What about you, Espo? Are you going to be home passing out candy?"

Esposito looked pained.

"Awww, Captain, there's a party I was going to go to but…"

"That's all right, Jav. If you've got plans."

"But I do want to see the rugrats," he frowned, then brightened. "Would you guys be willing to dress them up and bring them over on Saturday?" He looked at both Kate and Kevin.

"I can't think of anything we've got going on," replied Kate. "I'll ask Rick to make sure, but I think there won't be a problem.

Ryan nodded.

"Us too. Plan on it."

 **XXXXXX**

The morgue was next. Lanie had just changed out of scrubs to go to lunch, so she and Kate walked to a diner at the end of the block.

"Absolutely you're coming over tonight!" Lanie exclaimed as she took a bite of the patty melt she was sharing with Kate. "I need to see my little man!"

"Uh-huh," Kate raised an eyebrow. "And how long has it been since you've been over to the loft to see him? Three days?"

"And have I ever seen him in his costume?" Lanie sassed back. "You've had it for two weeks and you haven't let me see it. So, yeah, I need to see my little man."

"You'll be home tonight?"

"Yeah, I've got no plans other than passing out candy."

"We'll be by. He's adorable in his costume, you know." Kate teased.

"That's a given, girlfriend. He's adorable in anything."

 **XXXXXX**

Later that evening three Starfleet officers strode past the doorman into an apartment building in Tribeca…well, two of them strode in, the other was carried by the security officer.

A few residents looked askance at the three, but the doorman just grinned and didn't say a word.

In the elevator Kate asked, "Did you see some of the looks we got?"

"I don't care," Rick answered. "Those people are just jealous of our awesome uniforms anyway. Right Bud?" He tickled Eric under the chin.

"You'd think they'd never seen costumes before."

"You know what this means, Kate." Rick eyed her mischievously.

"What's that?"

"We'll have to visit in full costume more often."

The elevator door opened on Kate's laughter.

Stepping out onto the floor, Rick and Kate noticed several children going door to door. Shouts of "Trick or Treat!" lent a soundtrack to their walk down the hall.

Skirting goblins, princesses, super heroes, and a myriad of monsters, the three Starfleet officers stepped up to the second door on the left and knocked.

Castle shouted "Trick or Treat!" making Eric squeal, and Kate just rolled her eyes.

"How old are you?" she teased.

"Old enough," he answered as the Evil Queen in Snow White answered the door.

"Wow, great costume Martha!" exclaimed Kate.

"Oh!" Rick jumped back a little. "I didn't realize you'd dressed up, Mother."

"Watch it, Buster," Martha shot back. "Or I'll show you how evil I can be."

She lifted Eric out of her son's arms.

"You know, I always thought Patrick looked good in this uniform, but you, young man," she tickled Eric's belly, "are even more handsome!"

Kate blinked. Martha was as much of a name dropper as Rick was.

"Where's Alexis?" asked Rick.

"Here I am," she answered, coming out of her bedroom.

Eric let out a shriek and began squirming when he saw Alexis. He wasn't crying in his grandmother's arms, but with the costume he didn't recognize her. Alexis wasn't dressed up, so she wasn't a stranger.

He also loved his big sister.

Alexis reached for him and pulled him from Martha's arms, kicking and wriggling.

"Well, hello, Captain Flash!" she laughed as Eric gurgled and babbled.

"What's that?" she asked him. "Is that so? You are just full of stories, baby!"

A knock sounded and Eric jumped. He stared at the door when the sounds of 'Trick or Treat!' filtered through.

"What do you say, Captain?" Alexis said in his ear. "You wanna help me pass out some candy?"

Rick watched his children interacting. He was thrilled how Alexis had taken to her little brother – not that he had really worried about it – but it was amazing to watch.

"Are you two going to a party later tonight?" asked Martha noting their uniforms.

"No, Martha, Rick got us all uniforms for fun," replied Kate. "He thinks we're going to be rolling in candy because Eric's so cute."

"He may not be wrong, Darling," Martha went on. "But I'd suggest you stay on this floor and the one below. Those are the child friendly floors.

"Good to know. Thanks Martha."

Alexis reluctantly handed Eric back to their father saying she had to get back to studying.

"Thanks for coming over so I could see him. I'll come over to the loft tomorrow evening. I'll need some baby brother time after my test."

"We'll see you then," Rick hugged her and she went back to her room, much to the displeasure of Eric, who let out a yell as she left.

Kate and Rick decided to just do one floor since they still needed to go see Jim, and Martha chose to go with them.

"I know, I don't match your costumes, but this way I get to show off my grandson."

She then plucked Eric from Rick's arms and led the way down the hall.

 **XXXXXX**

Jim's place was next and Eric had loved the attention he got from his grandfather. Jim had done much the same as Martha in parading the baby to his neighbor's to show off. And all the neighbors loved the Starfleet costume.

Lanie was next, but they didn't stay long. It had been a long day and Eric was getting cranky. He refused to leave Kate's arms, not screaming when Rick tried to take him, but squirming away from him and further into his mother's chest. Rick ended up calling Ryan to see about a rain check.

"He's had enough," Rick explained on the phone. "How about we all just meet up Saturday at Espo's?"

That worked for Ryan, and Lanie said she'd be there as well.

"I do still need some cuddle time with my little man, but I guess I can wait." Lanie rubbed her hand over Eric's head.

"Sorry, Lanie, he's had a big day."

"Little guy's exhausted. But I bet he had fun anyway."

"Yeah, he did."

 **XXXXXX**

Rick and Kate quietly tiptoed into the loft. Eric had fallen asleep in the cab. He was a fairly light sleeper and they were doing their best not to wake him.

Taking him up to his room, Kate asked Rick, "Do you think he'll sleep through?""

"Probably not, but maybe he'll sleep longer than usual. He's down for the count."

Kate caressed her son's cheek, and Eric snuffled.

"You want to shower first?" Rick asked. They'd begun taking turns instead of showering together so one of them would be able to hear the baby monitor.

"You go ahead, Rick," she replied. "I just want to watch him sleep for awhile."

Rick smiled and pulled her in for a hug.

"Happy Halloween."

 **XXXXXX**

 _Thoughts?_


	12. Chapter 12 - Kate's Birthday

_A/N: I am so sorry this took so long! The muse left for a couple of days and came back kicking and screaming. :) Even though Kate's birthday isn't a "holiday", it was planned from the beginning to put it in, so I hope it works for you. It did get a little long and it's verrry sweet. Brush and floss after reading! I hope you enjoy!_

 **XXXXXX**

The area around Jim Beckett's cabin was a winter wonderland.

They had come yesterday afternoon, knowing the snow was coming and hoping to beat the storm. And they had – but apparently only just.

Kate had woken early, slipping out of bed without disturbing her snoring husband. Tiptoeing into her son's room, Kate watched him for a moment – seeing his little tummy rise and fall with his breathing.

She couldn't believe how lucky she was. Wife of a ruggedly handsome author, who also happened to be the best man in the universe, mother of the most perfect little boy to have existed, Kate wondered where all this was coming from.

But of course she knew. Ever since she got together with Castle, she'd made an effort to be happier. It was made much easier with Castle there, and it was so much better than the maudlin person she was before she met him.

Then Eric came along and her happiness became more so.

And it was her birthday today. The day was so much better than it had been for years. Another thing to thank Castle for. The memories of birthdays past were still bittersweet, but it didn't hurt quite so much to remember.

Kate pulled the blanket up over Eric's chest, and bright blue eyes blinked open. "Oh, I didn't mean to wake you, baby," she whispered with chagrin.

She rubbed Eric's belly to try to calm him back to sleep, but he was having none of it.

A big toothless grin lit up his little face and he began kicking in excitement.

"Oh, yeah? You're ready to get up?" She picked up the wriggling little boy, and he squealed in delight.

"Hi, happy boy," she half-whispered. "Shhh. Daddy's still asleep, let's not wake him up yet."

Kate wasn't aware that Daddy was already awake and watching her with Eric from the doorway.

Rick stood there, smiling – just watching the two of them. He suddenly understood what she meant when she said she was such a sappy mess.

He was too.

He moved back out of sight as Kate carried Eric to the changing table.

From this vantage point Rick couldn't make out what Kate was saying to the baby as she changed him, but the joy in her body language was apparent.

After changing Eric's diaper, Kate turned to sit on the rocking chair to nurse. She jumped when she saw Rick hovering just outside the door.

He came in the room.

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," he leaned over to kiss the top of her head, then Eric's. "I got up to make you breakfast in bed and you were gone."

Kate grinned up at him.

"I seem to remember you did the same thing to me on your birthday. Turnabout is fair play, Babe."

He pouted, then smiled at her raised eyebrow.

"I guess I can live with that," he kissed her again and walked to the doorway. "Pancakes or an omelet for the birthday girl?"

Kate rolled her eyes.

"I'll take an omelet, thanks." She watched her husband's back disappear. "With normal ingredients!" she called after him and turned her attention back to her baby.

"Daddy likes weird stuff in his omelets, Eric," she watched as he looked up at her face from his position at her breast. "And I'll just bet he'll try to train you to like them, huh."

Eric gave her a milky smile before latching on again.

 **XXXXXX**

After getting Eric and herself dressed, Kate made her way downstairs to the kitchen, where Rick was just plating up their omelets, adding pear and apple slices on the side.

"This looks fantastic, Rick!" she exclaimed, putting Eric into his bouncy chair.

"Nothing but the best for your birthday, Kate," he replied as he placed the plate in front of her and gave her a quick kiss.

The flavor from sun dried tomatoes and extra sharp cheddar cheese exploded on Kate's tongue, making her moan.

Rick's eyes darkened at the sound and she smirked at him.

"We have an audience, Rick," Kate nodded toward Eric but then licked her lips seductively. "You'll just have to wait until naptime."

Rick growled and Kate laughed.

"Come on, let's finish up breakfast and bundle up. I want to go for a walk in the snow."

"I – is that safe for Eric?" asked Rick.

"Yes, I looked it up. As long as he's dressed appropriately and we don't stay out too long, he'll be fine. Come on," Kate gave Rick her own version of puppy dog eyes. "It's 35 degrees and sunny. It's not that cold, and if there's wind we'll come right back in."

Castle grinned at her enthusiasm. She rarely let herself get worked up over little things, so it was a joy to see her like this.

"And then naptime?"

"And then naptime."

 **XXXXXX**

The wonderland was still there when the three finally stepped out of the house. Mounds of untouched snow covered the ground.

Kate bent to pick up a handful. It was heavy and wet.

"Look at this Rick! Perfect snowman snow!"

She dropped the snow and looked up at her husband holding their son.

Picking up a smaller bit of snow, Kate held it out to Eric.

The baby reached out, but was confused by his mittened hands. Where were his fingers? He frowned.

Kate laughed and put a little snow on her finger and then poked Eric's nose. He reared back in surprise, wide eyed.

"Kinda cold, huh?" Rick laughed. "Should we let him really feel it?" he asked Kate.

"Yeah, just for a minute. Then let's build a snowman!"

 _'Was it the place?'_ Rick wondered as Kate removed one of Eric's mittens. Yes; every day she seemed to become more and more carefree, but something about this trip magnified it. It surprised him a little, considering the summer she was up here alone shutting everyone out but her father. But Eric did have a way of healing old wounds. Kate was able to discuss her mother with more joy than melancholy – though that was certainly still there – but less. And Jim loved to tell the baby stories about 'Grandma Jo'.

"Rick?"

He jerked his head up and saw Kate's quizzical look.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Never better," he answered, and knew it was true.

Kate picked up more snow and held it out for Eric to touch.

He reached out tentatively, then grabbed a handful.

"Gah!" he cried out, more in surprise at the cold than anything else, Rick thought. He opened his fist, then closed it again, watching the tiny snowball fall to the ground. Then he stuck his fingers in his mouth and grinned around them.

Kate graced them both with her biggest smile.

"I think he likes it!"

Rick got the mitten back on Eric's hand.

"So how do you want to do this?" he asked. "I mean Eric can't exactly help with the snowman, and we can't put him down."

"Ooh, good point," she looked around. "How about if I make the bottom snowball and then we switch and you do the other two?"

"Sounds good. Eric and I will look for some rocks."

They went about their respective tasks, Eric squealing with delight when Rick bent over to dig through the snow looking for rocks to use as the snowman's face.

When he had found enough, Rick turned back to Kate and her giant snowball.

Kate took Eric out of the Snugli and Rick unstrapped it and handed it to her. She put it on and Rick put Eric back into it.

"See if you two can find some sticks to use as arms," he requested as he bent to the ground to start on his snowballs.

"Gotcha."

Kate and Eric wandered a little further into the woods. She leaned to see his face, and smiled at his wide eyed fascination with everything around him.

She did her own digging in the snow near the bottom of trees searching for broken off branches, Eric still loving the dive he took as Kate bent over, kicking and squealing with glee.

Finding two branches of similar sizes, and a short, fairly thick twig for a possible nose, she moved back to Rick who had just finished putting his first snowball on the snowman.

"That was fast," he said as he stretched his back before bending down for more snow.

"I got lucky," she shrugged.

Castle quirked his eyebrow and smirked.

"Say one word and you _won't_."

He mimed zipping his lips and went back to the snow.

Kate smiled and her face softened as she turned in a circle, taking in the cabin and the woods surrounding it.

"It's been a long time since I've been here in winter," she told him so softly he almost didn't hear.

Rick stood, lifting the last snowball into place. He didn't say anything, knowing she was turned inward and probably wouldn't hear him. He enjoyed it when she was introspective, he always learned something new about her.

"Dad always comes up for Christmas," she went on, then turned to Rick. "I hope he'll stay in the city this year, Eric may give him the incentive."

She stroked a finger down Eric's cold cheek.

"I haven't made a snowman since Mom..." she trailed off, tears forming.

Ah, there was the melancholy. Rick had wondered if it was going to come out today. He stepped forward.

"Kate."

"Damn it, I swore I wasn't going to do this today," she berated herself.

She moved closer to him and laid her head on his chest, being careful not to squash Eric, who had begun wiggling again.

"Do you want to go inside?"

"No, I want to finish our snowman. But, we should do it fast, we do need to get this little guy back indoors. He still seems good though, right?"

"I think he's fine for a little while longer," he replied, running his fingers over Eric's hat. "He's not showing any discomfort."

Eric yawned.

"But he is starting to get tired," Kate continued, even as the baby smiled up at her. "It's been a big morning."

"Should he help put the face on?" asked Rick.

Kate beamed.

"That's a great idea! Do you want to hold the head?"

"You know, I think it'll be easier if he's out of the carrier. Let's get him out and then I'll hold the head."

"You don't want to take turns putting the face on?"

Rick shook his head.

"It's your birthday, Kate," he said. "You get to do the fun stuff."

She just looked at him and he held up his hands.

"Seriously, I'm good! And this way I'm the target if Eric decides to throw the rocks."

"I won't let him throw rocks at you, Castle," she replied with a grin.

"I appreciate that."

Once again pulling Eric from the confines of the carrier, Rich handed him back to Kate and moved behind the snowman, holding the head.

Kate bent to pick up the short stick and held it for Eric. He grabbed it and immediately opened his mouth.

"Oh, no, baby boy," she laughed, grabbing his wrist gently. She moved closer to the snowman and helped Eric push the stick into the middle of the ball.

"Nose first?" asked Rick as he peeked around from behind.

"Helps tell where the eyes and mouth should be," Kate shrugged, bending to pick up the rocks.

She and Eric quickly put the stones in for the eyes and mouth, then Rick put the larger branches in for arms and put his scarf around the neck with a flourish.

"Olaf?" he asked?

Kate cocked her head, looking at their snowman.

"I think he looks like a George."

"Well, then we'd better build Fred tomorrow."

Eric began whimpering.

"That sounds like fun," Kate smiled. "But for now, we'd better get this little guy back inside. I think he's had enough for now."

Rick took the baby from Kate.

"Does a nap sound good to you my man? Yeah? Yeah, naps are good," he waggled his eyebrows at Kate.

She laughed.

"Definitely naptime."

 **XXXXXX**

Kate jolted awake an hour later to crashing and a few swear words. She jumped out of bed and hurried down the hall to check on Eric, who was still sound asleep.

Well that was a relief. Eric usually was such a light sleeper that she and Rick hardly dared talk to each other during his naps. It had become a game to see who could be quieter during their definition of 'naptime'. Fortunately they'd both become fairly good at it.

Kate stood and watched her baby for a moment longer, remembering that morning and decided not to mess with his blanket this time. She turned and walked back to the master bedroom, grabbed the baby monitor and went downstairs to find out what all the ruckus was.

She nearly laughed out loud at Rick on his hands and knees, head buried inside one of the lower cupboards. A few cookie sheets were strewn around him on the floor.

"What are you looking for, Rick?" she asked, wincing when he jumped, hitting his head on the top of the cupboard.

"Ow!" he exclaimed.

"Sorry. Are you okay?"

Rick turned and sat on the floor, rubbing his head.

"Yeah, just a bump. I was looking for cake pans."

"They should be in there, but why don't you call my dad and have him bring a cake so you don't have to make one?"

He gave her a glare that rivaled one of hers.

"Seriously?"

Kate rolled her eyes.

"I'm just saying you made me breakfast, you don't have to make me a cake."

"It's your day to be spoiled, Kate. Deal with it."

He turned and began searching again.

"Aha!" he crowed, pulling out three round pans. "Besides, with the weather, will your dad be able to make it out here?"

"That's a good point, I hadn't thought of that," Kate frowned. "I'll give him a call to see if he's coming."

Rick stood and stretched, then picked up the pans to wash them.

"And I am going to bake you a birthday cake." He bent to give her a quick kiss and turned on the faucet.

Kate shook her head and left him to it.

 **XXXXXX**

Jim arrived a few hours later.

"The roads were pretty much clear most of the way," he told Kate after a welcome/happy birthday hug. "It was a little touch and go the closer I got, but I'm sure it'll all be cleared by the time you head back to the city."

"Good to know," replied Kate as she led him in the house. "We'll probably head back Saturday. Are you spending more than one night?"

"No, I'm afraid I'll need to go back tomorrow morning," Jim told her. "We're on a big case that we'd like to wrap up before Thanksgiving next week. Everybody gets one day off, today was my turn. Only the weather talked them into letting me get to work late tomorrow."

"Oh, Dad, you should have told me! I would have postponed, or not have had my birthday out here."

"It's all right, Katie. We'll make the time up. Don't worry about it. Have you had a good birthday so far?"

Kate smiled as they walked inside.

"Yes, we've had fun today. Did you see the snowman outside? Eric helped."

Jim laughed.

"That little guy is going to have so much fun having the two of you as parents. It sounds like he already is."

"I hope so, Dad. He seems to like us, anyway."

Kate glanced over to the kitchen area but Rick was nowhere to be found. A large box was upended on the counter with skulls and crossbones drawn on it. A note was attached.

 _"NO PEEKING on pain of having your feet tickled!"_ was written in big red letters. Below, in smaller letters the note continued.

 _"We got a little carried away decorating. Eric needs a bath. Love you."_

"I'm almost afraid to find out what the decorations on the cake are," Kate laughed.

Jim joined in the mirth.

"I can't wait."

 **XXXXXX**

Kate had a great time with her birthday dinner. Castle had gone all out with her favorite Chinese foods.

Mushu pork, spring rolls and Szechuan chicken – all homemade while Kate was feeding Eric and catching up with her dad.

The man can certainly multitask.

Eric slept through dinner but much to Rick's delight he woke up in time for birthday cake.

"He helped decorate, so it's appropriate for him to see your reaction," he told her when she questioned why he was so excited about it.

"Besides," he continued, "Any time I can see him smile is a good time."

Well, he had her there.

Jim held the baby as Kate opened her birthday presents. Books from Rick and Jim, and (what she called ) a beautiful painting of handprints from Eric, already framed.

Rick stood and went to the kitchen, announcing when he returned –

"Let there be cake!"

Kate blew out the candles and laughed at the decoration.

More handprints were pressed into the icing on the cake. Rick explained how much fun Eric had had making them, and then rubbing his hands over his head.

"No wonder he was in the bath when I got here." Jim laughed as Kate smothered her baby with kisses.

 **XXXXXX**

Rick and Kate were in their room getting ready for bed. Jim had retired some time before since he was leaving early the next morning and Eric had gone down a half hour ago.

"Did you have a good birthday?" asked Rick.

Kate smiled.

"I did. It was wonderful."

"You're not sorry I didn't throw you a ginormous party at the Old Haunt?"

She put her arms around his waist.

"It was great," she insisted, kissing him. "Yes, I missed Martha and Alexis, but it was nice to get away for a few days, just the three of us. And really nice that Dad was able to come up. I haven't seen him for awhile."

She smiled.

"It's also nice to get away from all the Thanksgiving prep. I don't think it's as bad as having a birthday close to Christmas, but sometimes as a kid it felt like my birthday came second, even though it's before. Does that make sense?"

"Yes," Rick replied.

They parted and climbed into bed.

"Happy birthday, Kate."

 **XXXXXX**

 _I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanksgiving is up next and it should be quicker. :)_


	13. Chapter 13 - Thanksgiving

_A/N: Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you enjoy this chapter! K_

 **XXXXXX**

Eric was _not_ a happy camper.

He'd been crying all morning which wasn't helping Kate's already frazzled nerves. And the worst part was, neither she nor Rick could figure out what was wrong.

No fever, thank God, and he didn't seem to be sick. He'd been changed, he'd eaten, Kate rocked him in the rocking chair, Rick paced the entire loft with him, they even tried turning on the vacuum cleaner and just leaving it in his room to see if the white noise would calm him.

Nothing worked.

Alexis and Martha had come over this morning to help with Thanksgiving preparations and had ended up doing the bulk of the work so Kate and Rick could be with the baby. They both had tried to help with Eric, but he fussed even more when either of them tried to take him.

Kate felt guilty about that, but Martha nipped that in the bud.

"Don't worry about that, Katherine. He still loves his Gram and his big sister. But we're not Mommy and Daddy."

"I just wish I knew what was wrong!" she wailed, practically in tears herself. I just want to make it all go away for him. I want him to be my happy baby again."

"And he will be, darling," Martha soothed. "He's just having a bad day."

"Could he possibly be teething?" Alexis piped in.

"It's early for that, he's not quite 3 months old." Kate replied. "I almost wish he was, at least it would be an answer."

"You, know, I think part of it could be stress," Martha went on, looking at Kate shrewdly.

"Stress?" Kate squeaked, half panicking. "He's a baby, what stress?"

"Katherine, darling," Martha comforted, "you're stressed. You and Richard are hosting Thanksgiving dinner. I know it's not your first time hosting –"

Kate smiled wanly at the memory of that first Thanksgiving together. At least they weren't dressing up this time.

" – But Alexis and I were still living here, and each had our part in the preparation. Yes, we're here helping today, but we wouldn't be if you hadn't called because of Eric. You wanted to do it all, and it's not working out that way. And you know, even if things were going like clockwork, it's still a bit nerve wracking trying to get everything done in time. Eric's picking up on your mood, and it's like a feedback loop. His stress makes yours worse, and yours makes his worse."

"So it's my fault?" Kate whispered, feeling extremely guilty.

"Katherine Houghton Beckett Castle! None of this is your fault!"

Kate jumped at the sound of her dad's stern voice. She hadn't heard that tone, or her full name from him for years. She also hadn't heard his knock; Alexis must have let him in.

"Dad…"

"Your father's right, Katherine. Babies pick up on their parents' moods. Sometimes even when it's 'pretend'. Richard got cranky more than once when I was learning lines for a dramatic role."

"I do kinda want everything to be perfect today…" Kate began.

"But it doesn't have to be, Katie," said Jim. "We're family. We already know each others foibles. Tell you what. You and Rick take Eric and go for a walk. Take him to the park and if there's still enough snow, make a snowman like you did up at the cabin last week. Your relaxing will help Eric relax. We'll take care of finishing up dinner."

Rick came down the stairs holding a still very unhappy baby.

"Did you hear that, Rick?" Kate asked him. "Do you want to go for a walk?"

"I'm willing to try just about anything at this point," he answered.

"Here, Dad, let me hold him while you and Kate get everything together." Alexis held out her arms and Rick handed Eric off to her, which – unfortunately – made the baby cry harder.

They quickly gathered coats, mittens, hats, scarves, Snugli and diaper bag and got ready to go.

"We'll see you in an hour," Jim ordered. "No sooner, hear?"

Kate rolled her eyes.

"Unless Eric gets too cold, Dad." She kissed his cheek in thanks, and turned to watch Alexis putting Eric into the carrier on Rick's chest. Alexis had managed to get him to stop crying, and Kate thought he seemed – not _happier,_ really _–_ but less unhappy now something new was going on. Hopefully this walk would help them all breathe a bit easier.

"Thanks, Pumpkin," Rick hugged his daughter. "Don't let your grandmother burn the place down."

"Dad!"

"Castle!"

"I heard that, Richard."

He held up his hands in surrender.

"Just kidding, Mother," he kissed her cheek.

"Mm-hmm," was all she replied.

 **XXXXXX**

Kate was still worried as the elevator descended. Not so much about dinner and how everything needed to come together, but about Eric. She recalled reading about how her moods could affect the baby, but since he made her so happy it wasn't much of an issue. Now – and she recognized it was ridiculous – she still felt like it was her fault. She was stressed because Eric was stressed, which was making his stress worse, which was making her stress worse. Maybe she needed a bout with a punching bag. She'd call her doctor Monday to see about starting up her exercise regimen again.

But as soon as they stepped outside onto the cold sidewalk, Kate was able to take a deep breath and let go.

 _'_ _Okay,'_ she thought, _'it's time to just be with Eric and Rick. It's time to_ _just be_ _.'_

Smiling at her guys, she took Castle's hand and they headed for the park.

There wasn't much snow in the park when they arrived. The storm had been much more intense upstate, and what drifts there were here were simply the remnants of snowmen other children had built when it was fresh.

Even so, Kate could feel herself becoming lighter as they walked further into the park. Looking at the playground, she found herself excited to bring Eric to play on her days off when he was older.

"Too bad that warm spell hit a few days ago," Rick mentioned, breaking into her thoughts. "Most of the snow has melted."

Kate shrugged as she lifted Eric from the carrier.

"It'll snow again. And it's kind of nice not having rotten weather on a traveling holiday."

"Point taken."

It was peaceful in the park, not silent – the ambient sounds of the city never went away – but with just the three of them there, it felt like they were the only ones in the world.

Kate carefully sat on the swing as Rick held the chains steady.

Eric looked up at his daddy and smiled.

Rick smiled back at him.

"He seems to be feeling better after getting away for a minute."

Kate turned him to face her and his grin grew bigger.

"There's my happy boy!" Kate matched his smile as she hugged him and set the swing swaying.

Rick stopped the swing and Kate looked up in confusion.

"What – ?" she began, but was interrupted by a kiss.

She moaned as he broke it and stepped back,

"Wow, what was that for?"

"I just love you, that's all."

"That's all, huh?" she gave him a teasing grin. "I guess that's enough."

He smirked back, sat on the other swing and watched his wife and son rocking back and forth.

 **XXXXXX**

45 minutes later, The three traipsed back into the loft. A breeze had picked up and it was getting cold. Kate also wanted to be home in time to get the turkey out of the oven.

As soon as they walked in, Kate found her dad and pulled him in for a hug.

"Thanks, Dad. We needed that."

"Glad you got away, Katie. You look more relaxed."

She smiled.

"Did Rick take Eric upstairs?"

"Yeah, he's a tired little boy. It's been a big frustrating day for him."

"I've had days like that."

That made Kate laugh.

"Where are Martha and Alexis?"

"Here I am, Kate."

Kate whirled to see Alexis walking through the door.

"I just took some recycling out. I think Gram went upstairs to dress for dinner."

"Okay. Dad, do you want to turn the game on?"

"Nah. No one I want to see is playing."

Kate began pulling plates out of the cupboard, just as the oven timer dinged.

Kate looked around.

"Rick's still upstairs with Eric, will you help me with the turkey, Dad? Rick got an enormous one."

Jim opened the oven door and gasped.

"Holy…!" he exclaimed.

"I know, right? I'm afraid we're still going to have leftover turkey next Thanksgiving," Kate joked. "It took us both to get it into the oven, so I know it'll take two to get it out."

Jim handed her the hot pads and grabbed a towel for himself.

"I think you're right," he grabbed one handle of the roasting pan and Kate took hold of the other.

"Ready?" he asked.

Kate nodded.

"Heave!"

Kate laughed as they pulled the roasting pan up onto the top of the stove.

"I'm not sure I've ever even seen a bird that big," Jim mentioned.

"Yeah, Dad does tend to go all out with the turkey."

They turned to see Alexis rummaging in a drawer and pulling out the foil.

Ripping off a large piece, she continued.

"He loves to make sandwiches for later in the day, and then he gets inventive with the rest. Stews, turkey salad, turkey noodle soup, a concoction that's not unlike a shepherd's pie, but obviously with turkey, that's actually really good, and any number of other recipes."

"Wow," Jim asserted. "It sounds like you don't even need to cook, Katie. Do you?"

She laughed.

"We take turns now I'm on maternity leave. But when I'm working, it's usually Rick who cooks, though I do on my days off."

Just then Rick came down the stairs holding the baby monitor.

"Oh, there you are, Kate. I'm going to take a quick shower." He moved into his office.

"Thanks, Babe," she called after him. Turning to Jim she added; "I'll head in there too, I need to change. Dinner's in a half hour everyone!"

"Why don't you leave that here, Kate? Alexis indicated the monitor. We can listen for Eric while you get ready."

That sounded good to her.

"Thanks, Alexis," she put the device on the counter. "We won't be long."

 **XXXXXX**

Kate rushed into the bedroom, hoping that Rick's 'quick shower' wasn't all that quick. It had been a long time, and though the shower really did need to be fast, she wanted to be with him.

She missed him.

Kate could hear the water running as she hastily stripped and walked into the bathroom.

Skirting Boba Fett – she didn't know why she hadn't insisted they move him out of the bathroom or relegated him to the Hamptons, other than once she got over having a heart attack every time she went in there, she got as big a kick out of the bounty hunter as Castle did – she silently opened the shower door.

Rick hadn't been in there long, she could tell. His back was still fairly dry and he was just standing in the spray. He always liked to just soak for a moment before washing himself.

Kate snaked her arms around him, making him jump.

He turned and kissed her slowly. It was good to be able to do this.

"You left the monitor with Mother?"

"Yes – well, with Alexis. Turkey's out of the oven."

Rick turned back around and grabbed the body wash.

Squirting a generous amount onto a poof, he turned again and began rubbing it on Kate.

"Guess we really will have to hurry."

"'Fraid so, Babe," she replied, taking the poof from him in order to speed things up.

Rick pouted as he turned to get another poof and more soap.

"First time one of those three babysits for us we're getting a hotel just so we can take a long… hot… shower."

Still mindful of the need to hurry, Kate put her arms around Rick's neck and hummed.

"That might be sooner than you think," she murmured.

They shared one last long, sultry kiss, then turned to the business at hand.

 **XXXXXX**

Dinner was fun. After serving entering generous amounts, there still didn't seem to be a dent made in the turkey.

"Definitely the gift that keeps on giving," Alexis joked, though she wasn't far wrong.

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Pumpkin," Rick smirked back.

Eric woke up hungry just as everyone got started eating.

"Isn't that the way it goes?" Kate asked rhetorically as she jumped to run up the stairs. "I'll be right back."

"Bring him down to feed him," Jim told her. "No need for your food to get cold."

Bringing down a still whining baby, Kate sat and began unbuttoning her shirt.

"There you go, hungry boy," Kate smiled down at her baby as the whining stopped abruptly.

Dinner was fun. Once Eric had finished eating, he 'joined' in the conversation – squealing and babbling in excitement over all the new sights, sounds and smells of the party. He was definitely back to his happy self, much to his parents relief.

After dinner Alexis brought a stack of board games out of the closet. All the classics – Monopoly, Risk, Life, Clue – among several others were in the pile.

Rick teased Kate about not letting her play Clue – "Because after all, you are a detective. It's an unfair advantage."

She then proceeded to prove him right by mopping the floor with everyone.

A few hours later, Jim decided it was time to go home.

"I've had a great time, Katie," he told her as she took him into the kitchen to load him up with leftovers. "Unfortunately, not everyone can sleep in or go shopping on Black Friday."

"You're still on that big case you were telling me about last week?"

"Yep. We had wanted to get it done before today, but no such luck. We just weren't able to get everything together. It's all hands on deck in the morning."

Heading back to the living room Jim set his bag of leftovers down and took Eric from Martha's arms for a moment.

"Hey big guy," he said to the baby and was rewarded with a big smile. "Grap loves you and I'll see you soon. We've got plans to make! We're gonna to a baseball game this spring!"

Amid laughter from the others, Jim kissed Eric's cheek and handed him back to Martha.

Kate hugged him one more time with a "thanks for coming," and he left.

Martha and Alexis each took their turns in the kitchen for their share of the food, Alexis getting into a good natured argument with her dad over the stuffing like they did every year.

"I made twice as much so we'd each have enough!" exclaimed Rick.

"Twice as much for me!" laughed Alexis.

Kate joined the banter, saying that they'd better choose or she'd take all of it for herself.

"Everyone knows the best part of Thanksgiving is the stuffing," she laughed at the looks on their faces.

 **XXXXXX**

Rick came into the bedroom just as Kate was hanging up her phone.

"Who was that?" he asked.

She jumped a little and looked up.

"Lanie."

"Is everything all right? They don't need you back yet do they?"

Kate smiled.

"No, nothing like that. She wants me to go shopping with her tomorrow."

"You… don't seem too excited about that," Rick said slowly.

Kate sighed.

"I'd like to go, I really would – but I don't want to take Eric. I think it's too soon to take him out in such crowds."

"You do know you have a built in babysitter."

She walked over to him and curled herself up against his chest. Rick put his arms around her.

"But he's my baby, and I'm not sure I want to leave him …ever," she looked up at Rick with puppy dog eyes.

Rick quirked his eyebrow.

"May I remind you of the shower we took earlier? Discussing getting a hotel? I believe your exact words were 'that might be sooner than you think'?"

"But that was a hypothetical situation with you there. This is real, and not with you."

"Well, you're not leaving forever, and we're a phone call away if you get lonely for him. You need to go out with Lanie."

"You don't think I'm abandoning him?"

Rick stifled a laugh and squeezed her tighter.

"Of course not. You go have some girl time with Lanie, and I'll have some guy time with Eric. We'll be fine."

Kate bit her lip, thinking.

"All right, I'll call her back and let her know. Did Eric go down?"

"Yes, he was one exhausted little boy."

"I'll go check on him." She glanced at him like she thought he was going to say something. When he didn't, but looked at her quizzically, she continued.

"Does that annoy you? That I check on him after you?"

"Kate, you're his mother and you're you. I'd be worried if you didn't."

He smiled.

"Go on, go see your baby."

"Thanksgiving keeps getting better every year, doesn't it?"

"It certainly does."

 **XXXXXX**

 _A/N2: So, what did you think? One more chapter and probably an epilogue to go. I can't believe this year is almost over! :) Christmas is up next._


	14. Chapter 14- Christmas

_A/N: I had a very difficult time with this one, I'm not sure why. It may be that it's the end of the story and the muse decided to go on an early vacation. Then when it did come back it sent me off on a tangent that totally didn't fit, so I had to scrap that. At least things finally came together to sneak in for #CastleFanficMonday. I hope you enjoy!_

 **XXXXXX**

Rick burst into the loft slamming the door.

"Kate!" he called out, practically jumping out of his skin with excitement.

He rushed to the bedroom, only noticing the sheet of paper fluttering to the floor in passing. He'd get it later, he thought, hurrying through the office.

"Kate?" he called again.

No answer and the bedroom was empty.

Rick winced.

He'd come barreling into the apartment like a freight train. He hoped Eric hadn't been asleep.

He quickly and silently ran up the stairs. He still hadn't heard anything, and he was positive Kate would have come yelling if he'd screwed up naptime.

Sure enough, Eric's room was empty as well.

Castle completely deflated. He had been so excited to show Kate what he'd found out at the department store. He hadn't signed up yet, but had picked up a flyer to see what she thought before doing so.

But where did they go?

Rick's phoned pinged and he pulled up the text.

 ** _"Hey babe, you home yet? Did you get my note?"_**

Note? What note?

Texting back a **_"Hang on"_** as he went back downstairs, Rick looked around the living room, but didn't see anything resembling a note. Then he remembered the piece of paper that had fallen.

"Now where did that go?" he asked himself as he walked into the kitchen. Then he saw a corner peeking out from under the refrigerator.

"Aha!" he exclaimed and began to read.

 _Rick,_

 _Would you believe I got called in for a meeting at 1PP? I know, right? It shouldn't be too long, I hope. Eric's with Dad if you want to pick him up, though I know Dad wants to spoil him rotten. Shoot me a text when you get this. I love you,_

 _Kate._

Rick pulled his phone back out of his pocket and began typing.

 ** _"Really? A meeting? What about being on leave? Maybe you should have brought Eric along to remind them you're off work for another month. :)"_**

He ran out of room so he sent off the text, and began another.

 ** _"If it's okay with you I could use the quiet to get some writing done. Do you want to call your dad or should I?"_**

Rick set his phone on the desk and opened his laptop. He had just begun reading the last page he had written when the phone pinged again.

 ** _"I'll send him a text. I'll be here at least another hour, then I can pick Eric up. Or maybe I'll do a little shopping first. I still have to buy your Christmas present."_**

He smirked and typed again.

 ** _"You still haven't bought me a present? How could you?"_**

He added an 'offended' emoji.

 ** _"Let me know if you need me to get Eric. I love you."_**

One final ping from Kate.

 ** _"3"_**

 **XXXXXX**

An hour passed and Rick's phone pinged once again.

 ** _"_** ** _Sorry Babe. It looks like I have to stay after school. Will you call my dad or pick Eric up yourself? Love you."_**

Rick laughed aloud and began typing.

 ** _"_** ** _Why, Captain, were you passing notes in class? Sassing back to the teacher? I'll head out to get him now. See you at home. Love you always."_**

Saving his work, Rick called Jim, letting him know that he was on his way.

"Yes, apparently Kate's meeting went long."

"Kind of odd, with her being on leave and all," Jim mentioned over baby giggles from Eric.

"I agree, but she didn't go into detail. I'll hear all about it when she gets home, I'm sure," Rick laughed. "Eric seems to be having a good time with you, Jim."

"He just likes having his feet tickled. Don't you Eric?"

The baby let out a squeal that had Rick pulling the phone from his ear.

"I'll be there in about ten minutes to pick him up."

"We'll be here."

 **XXXXXX**

When the two opened the door to the loft they found Kate pacing.

"What's the matter?"

Kate began moving the straps on the carrier and lifted her baby out.

"Nothing, really," she sighed, hugging Eric close to her chest. "I have a new boss. Frank Larson retired."

Rick's eyebrows raised.

"He was a good guy."

"You're only saying that because he made me take my leave a little early," Kate snorted. "You never even met him."

"He made you see reason, and that makes him a good guy." Rick leaned over and kissed her cheek."

"Anyway…DI Tanya Peck is her name, and she's a bit of a pit bull like Captain Gates was when she first arrived in the precinct."

"Ooh."

"I won't let her kick you out, Babe."

Kate frowned and continued.

"I guess it was partly my fault. I asked why I was called in since I'm on leave and she took it – I don't know that she thought it was insubordination – but she wasn't happy about it. A 'formal meeting' is what she called it and I didn't think it needed to be formal for me until I actually got back to work."

"I take it that didn't go over well?"

"Uh…no."

"That's why she wanted you to stay, wasn't it?"

Kate sighed.

"Yes. A wonderful lecture about teamwork and 'we need to all get along.' And it _was_ my fault, really. I was looking forward to going out with Eric, we were meeting Lanie, but that had to be postponed. I guess I wouldn't have had as much of a problem with going in if I'd had a little notice, not a phone call saying 'be here in twenty minutes.' But, I still shouldn't have spoken up about it during the meeting."

Rick pulled her into a hug, making Eric squawk in protest.

"Sorry, buddy," Rick grinned.

He pecked her lips and backed away, his excitement from that morning coming back.

"Guess what I want to do in the next couple of days?"

His giddiness was making Kate nervous, but she loved it anyway.

"I'm almost afraid to ask…"

"Well, if you really think it's not a good idea, we _could_ hold off for a couple of years, but I really don't want to, it's Eric's first Christmas after all."

"Rick, you're giving me puppy dog eyes and I don't even know what you want," Kate teased. "But if you're talking Santa, I'm all in."

"Really?!" Rick was gobsmacked. "I thought for sure…"

"This is like the trick or treating, right? We survived that. I admit I'm a little wary about the crowds and letting a total stranger hold him, but we'll be right there, and like you said, it's Eric's first Christmas."

Rick's face lit up like it was already Christmas morning.

"I have a plan about that – if you think it's a good idea."

Kate eyed him – not warily, but with some trepidation. Castle's plans could be out there at times, but were usually fun.

"Okay, shoot."

Instead of speaking, Rick handed her the flyer he'd taken from the department store.

 ** _"_** ** _Be Santa for an hour!"_** Kate read aloud, **_"Perfect if you have fussy children, crying babies, even annoyed adults! We provide candy canes, small gifts and the Santa suit. {We have several sizes, we should have yours!} Call today!"_**

The phone number, address and website were listed below.

"' _Annoyed adults_?'" Kate raised an eyebrow.

"I think that's just a joke," Rick shrugged. "I haven't called because I wanted to see what you thought about it, but I did visit the website, and reviews of it in several places. It seems to be on the up and up."

"Hmmmm…"

"I know that Eric hasn't had any real separation anxiety yet, he'd probably go to a mall Santa without crying, but this way, it'll be me. He knows me – of course – and more importantly – you know me."

"I like it…"

Rick noticed Kate's slight frown.

"But?"

"But what if he does cry? I mean, sure Eric's happy enough if Alexis or Lanie or Kevin holds him, but he's around them and knows them."

"Again, he does know me, Kate."

She gave him a not very potent glare.

"I know. But does he know Santa? That's what I mean. Eric's not going to recognize you with all the padding and the beard."

"Easy enough to solve. You're in the picture too."

Kate ran her hand through her hair in frustration.

"But you're not. Because you're Santa."

Rick looked confused.

"I know, I'm not making sense..."

Rick's lightbulb turned on and he nodded in understanding.

"Not at first, but I get it now. If you need to be with Eric in a Santa picture, it needs to be a family picture. I need to be there as well as Santa"

"Yes!" Kate exclaimed. Sometimes it still amazed her how well he got her.

"How's this? I ask Alexis if she's willing to come along. She can sit on my lap and take the picture with Eric. And I can have both my children in a Santa picture together."

Kate smiled at Rick's wistful look.

"I think that's a great idea. Go call her and then the department store. And if you're good – "

She kissed him lightly.

"This 'annoyed adult' might take a picture with Santa as well."

 **XXXXXX**

Two days later Rick, Kate, Alexis and Eric walked into the department store an hour early for their appointment.

"It's to help get Eric a little more acclimated to crowds," Castle had explained in the car. "He had a little at Halloween, but that was two months ago and this'll be bigger."

So here they were, wandering around the store while waiting for their time.

Kate broke off from the others for a few minutes, saying she had one more thing to buy.

"Mind if I come along, Kate?" asked Alexis.

"M-me too?" Rick's puppy dog eyes were in full force as he tried to keep the kicking Eric from squirming right out of his carrier.

Smirking at Castle and then ignoring him Kate turned to Alexis.

"You can if you want, Alexis, but I don't want to traumatize you."

Kate nearly laughed aloud at the look of utter disgust that Alexis was unsuccessfully trying to tamp down, and Rick's practically salivating at what she might have in store for him.

"Okay, I'll pass. Already traumatized."

"Um – Kate?"

Kate just grinned at Castle and sauntered off.

"Oh, come on!"

 **XXXXXX**

When Kate returned fifteen minutes later, she had no bag, but her trench coat was tightly fastened.

"Didn't you buy anything?" asked Alexis. "And aren't you warm?"

"Maybe," replied Kate. "And no, I'm fine. So what do you think, do we have time to get lunch?"

"Actually, no," Rick uttered.

Looking up from his phone, he continued.

"Just got a text from the photo place. Somebody cancelled, so if we hurry they can take us now, and possibly give us a longer session if Eric cooperates."

"Perfect."

Hurrying to the back of the store, the four passed the line snaking around the Santa there for the kids whose parents either hadn't seen the flyer, or didn't want to pay to be their own Santa. There were plenty of fussy children, crying babies and annoyed adults in that line.

"I'm glad we're doing it this way," Kate mentioned. "If only so we don't have to deal with that line."

"Yeah, I think we'd all be pretty cranky after that," Rick agreed.

They reached the "Be your own Santa" area.

"Castle family?" the attendant inquired.

"That's us," answered Rick.

"All right, let's bring Santa back to get all suited up."

Kate quickly unstrapped Eric and lifted him out of the carrier. Eric smiled happy to at last be free. He loved the carrier – and his daddy – but it was time to get out.

He babbled to Kate as Rick pulled off the carrier and handed it to Alexis.

"See you guys in a few minutes," he told them as he walked to the back with the attendant.

After another ten minutes, a bottle of expressed milk and a diaper change, the attendant returned.

"We're ready for you," she announced, and Kate and Alexis quickly packed up and followed her back.

They were greeted by a loud "HO! HO! HO!" when they reached the backroom set up for photos.

Eric was wide-eyed at the strange man with the beard. He looked at Alexis, then Kate, and seeing them both smiling seemed to come to the decision to _not_ cry.

Reaching out for Eric, Santa spoke to him.

"Well, well, well! Merry Christmas! And what's your name little one?"

Eric looked around in surprise at this stranger taking him from his mother's arms."

"Gah!" he yelled.

"Eric? I like that name. Come on over here and you can tell me what you'd like me to bring you for Christmas."

The baby squirmed around to see what Mommy and Alexis thought of all this. They were smiling, so this 'Santa' person must not be all bad. There was also a certain familiarity about this guy.

Pictures were taken of Eric alone, then with Alexis and then Santa coerced Alexis into a couple with just her. When they were finished Kate asked, "Alexis, why don't you take Eric back out into the store? I think he was enjoying the people watching. I'll help Santa out of his costume."

"Not one word, Dad!" Alexis told Rick firmly as she blushed.

Kate blushed too, she hadn't realized the innuendo at first. Jeez, and in front of the kids!

As soon as the two left, Alexis grousing in Eric's ear about how gross parents were, Kate turned to the photographer.

"Close your eyes if you would, please?" The photographer looked surprised, as did Castle. "You'll understand in a minute." She eyed Castle. "You too, Santa."

"B – b – but…"

"It's a surprise."

Both sets of eyes closed.

Kate quickly loosened her coat and took off her pants. She was glad this outfit came with a pair of shorts as well as a skirt. It was one thing to strip to her underwear in a fitting room, a relatively public place like this was something else again.

She put the skirt, Vulcan ears that she had swiped from Rick's Halloween/cosplay stash, and hat on. Then she went and sat in Santa's lap.

"Okay, eyes open."

Rick's eyes widened when he saw her costume.

"J – j – j – just for us?"

"These pictures aren't going to be too wild, but yeah, just for us."

She kissed his cheek and the photographer snapped the shutter.

 **XXXXXX**

Christmas morning arrived quietly.

Of course, Alexis had long outgrown getting up at the crack of dawn, and Martha always enjoyed her beauty sleep.

Rick sat up and looked over at Kate still sleeping.

She looked so young as she slept, far too young to be a cop, let alone Captain of a precinct. She had told him the same thing about him. Something about sleep erased all the cares away.

He leaned in and kissed her cheek.

"Mmmm…" she rolled over and opened her eyes. "Is it Christmas yet?"

"Yep, Merry Christmas, Kate."

Kate sat up and kissed him.

"Is anyone else up?"

Martha and Alexis had spent the night. Kate had tried to get Jim to come, but didn't push him. He'd come for Thanksgiving – Christmas was harder for him.

"Haven't heard anyone moving around, and the monitor hasn't picked anything up from Eric."

"Good."

Kate snuggled into Rick's side for a few more minutes then decided it was time.

"Are you gonna start the pancakes?"

"Yeah," Rick pushed the covers back. "You'll get Eric?"

"Of course," she replied as she went into the bathroom.

They switched after five minutes and Kate quietly went up the stairs to Eric's room, resolutely ignoring the tree and all the presents until everyone was downstairs.

Eric was awake when she walked in the bedroom, turning tear filled eyes to her and babbling his displeasure.

"Hi, baby, merry first Christmas!" Kate picked him up and hugged him close. "I got here just in time, huh?"

She moved to the changing table.

"Let's get you changed and fed while Daddy makes breakfast for everyone else. You're a lucky little boy getting to eat first."

Kate kept the one sided conversation going, Eric loving every minute of it, as she heard Castle downstairs in the kitchen clanging pots and pans.

 **XXXXXX**

Everyone was in the living room when Kate and Eric joined them. Rick had lit the tree and Martha and Alexis were chatting over coffee.

"Merry Christmas, Katherine!"

"Merry Christmas, Martha – Alexis," Kate replied.

Eric started kicking and squirming at the sight of his big sister. Kate was grateful that the feeling was mutual between the two.

"Hey, little boy, go see your sister," Kate whispered in his ear and handed him to Alexis. "I'll go see if Daddy needs help."

She walked over to the kitchen only to be met by Castle handing her a cup of coffee and telling her to turn around."

"Things are under control for now," he went on, grabbing his own coffee. "I thought we'd open a few presents before breakfast."

"I was wondering why I couldn't smell the bacon," she smirked.

Rick sat on the floor and after a moment Kate joined him. He began pulling gifts from under the tree, putting them in piles until he had grabbed two for each person.

"Mother?" he handed her the first gift.

"Thank you, dear."

Rick passed out the others and dove back under the tree for more.

"Rick?" he heard Kate ask quizzically. Ah, he must have given her 'that' one.

Crawling out with two more presents he glanced over at her.

"I think you put the wrong tag on this one…" Kate looked over the package. "No, it's still small…" Now she looked up at him. "Castle, he's not going to be able to use this for years!"

It was a laser tag set sized for a three year old.

"I know, but I saw it and couldn't resist."

"He did the same thing with Alexis' first set," Martha jumped in. "Though wasn't it her second Christmas?"

"Mom told me she wasn't thrilled about that," Alexis joined the conversation. " _'What kind of a gift is that for a little girl?'_ I was never as into dolls as she would have liked, I think she blamed you for that."

Rick shrugged.

"I probably could have, or even should have waited until you were older, but I saw the set and couldn't resist. Same thing with this one."

He looked at Kate a little warily, as though she might get mad at him for a gift that couldn't even be used yet.

She tried to glare at him, but burst out laughing instead.

"You're a goofball, Rick, and I wouldn't have you any other way." She kissed him.

"Oh, parental grossness alert, Flash!" Alexis held the baby over her face to hide from the antics, Eric letting out a happy squeal.

A knock on the door sounded.

Kate looked at Rick who shrugged, but Kate thought she saw a small smile on his face as she hauled herself off the floor – stumbling over her feet on the way to the door.

Jim was on the other side.

"Dad!" Kate blurted in surprise.

"Merry Christmas, Katie," he eyed her tentatively. "Mind if I come in?"

Kate shook herself out of her shock and backed away from the door.

"Of course, Dad, come on in."

Rick had stood by this time and came over to shake hands."

"Jim, I'm glad you could make it."

"Thanks, Rick. It was time."

He looked at his daughter.

"If that's okay?"

Kate gave him a bone crushing hug.

"More than, Dad. Come on, let's see what other ridiculous gifts Castle got for Eric."

 **XXXXXX**

It was over. Kate had climbed into bed while Rick was finishing up in the bathroom.

"Thanks for my dad, Rick."

"I just talked to him again. I wasn't sure if he'd change his mind or not, but I'm glad he did."

"Me too."

Rick pouted a little.

"I'm a little bummed that Eric was scared of his teddy bear."

"Well, to be honest, Castle I was too a little bit. It's six feet tall!"

"He'll…grow into it."

Kate snorted.

"Not exactly a snuggler, Rick." Kate curled up next to him. "You know, like this."

Rick drew her closer in.

"It was a good day though, wasn't it?"

"The best. Merry Christmas, Castle."

"Merry Christmas."

 **XXXXXX**

 _A/N2: Tell me what you think? There will be an epilogue, hopefully (finger's crossed) within the week. K_


	15. Chapter 15

_A/N: And New Year's once again. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed writing this story, even with writer's block and procrastination. I can hardly believe we're at the end. I'm still amazed at how people have taken to this and I'm so, so grateful that you all did. It's been a ride. I hope you enjoy this short epilogue!_

 **XXXXXX**

It was New Year's Eve. The loft was quiet for the most part, with Kate curled up in the window seat, Eric sleeping on her thighs, watching the festivities outside.

Alexis had a party, and Martha had said she might or might not pop in closer to midnight – but for now, anyway, it was just the three of them.

"What's your dad up to tonight?"

Kate looked up from the window as Rick walked from the kitchen and handed her a champagne flute.

"He usually goes to his work get together for a little while, then home to watch the ball drop. He's not that big on non-family parties."

Rick nodded.

"I'm beginning to feel that way myself. Gina wanted me to make an appearance at a couple of celebrations tonight, but I told her we couldn't find a babysitter."

Kate laughed aloud, making Eric twitch on her legs.

"I take it you didn't mention that you didn't try?"

"Now why would I do that?" he grinned as he leaned over to kiss her and Eric.

Kate took a sip from her glass, almost choking in surprise at the taste.

"Ginger ale?"

"A little nostalgia for last year," Rick shrugged. "I also didn't want to get too loopy while Eric's up."

Eric let out a snore and Kate laughed.

"You know what I mean," Rick went on with a false glare, "I've got the real stuff chilling for midnight."

Kate smiled as Eric began waking up, wiggling his arms and kicking his legs.

"Hey, baby," she cooed softly as the little boy scrunched up his face to cry.

She unbuttoned her shirt and put Eric to her breast. The crying cut off before it really began, replaced by the snorting and snuffling of nursing.

Rick watched her with awe.

"What?" she asked when she looked up. "You've seen me nurse before."

"I know. I just can't help it. You're a natural."

"Not quite," Kate laughed. "Remember how terrified I was when Eric was born? He was a little vacuum cleaner!"

Rick laughed at that.

"You both got the hang of it pretty quickly as I recall."

"Yeah," Kate looked down at her son. "And I wouldn't change a second of it…except maybe the heat this summer."

Eric finished eating and yawned.

"Looks like someone wants to go back to sleep," Rick mentioned. "Here, I'll go change his diaper. Should we put him down now or do you want him still?"

"Let's put him down." She stood and took Rick's hand. "I'll grab his pajamas while you change him."

 **XXXXXX**

As they walked back down the stairs, Kate could hear the revelers outside ramping up the celebration. She looked at her watch.

"Wow, it's later than I thought," she glanced up at Rick.

"Time flies when you're having fun," he grinned back at her.

Kate laughed, they hadn't actually done much in celebration, just a quiet night at home.

When they reached the bottom of the steps, they separated, Kate to the stereo, and Rick to the kitchen.

Feeling a little deja-vu, Kate pulled up the playlist of slow songs. She smiled at the memory of this time last year.

Rick came over with the flutes – filled this time with champagne.

"It's been a big year," he mentioned as he handed her the glass.

"It's been an incredible year," she replied.

Rick lifted his glass.

"May this New Year be at least as incredible as the last," he toasted.

"Always," she lifted her glass to his.

They began to dance – keeping it as slow as they had last New Year's Eve.

Kate smirked up at Rick.

"You know, we can speed it up if you want. I'm not sick this time."

Rick just pulled her closer to him, still keeping the swaying to a minimum.

"I actually kinda like keeping it slow."

Kate put her arms around Rick's waist, snuggling closer into his chest.

"Me too."

The alarm on Rick's watch chimed and shouts were heard from outside.

"Happy New Year, Rick."

He kissed her lightly.

"Happy New Year, Kate. It's gonna be a great one."

 **END**

 **XXXXXX**

 _A/N 2: And finish! Once again, I thank everyone for reading. It's been fun! K_


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